MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA: ITALY Mapping Digital Media: Italy

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COUNTRY REPORT

A REPORT BY THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS

WRITTEN BY Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Giulio Vigevani (lead reporters) Sergio Splendore (reporter)

EDITED BY Marius Dragomir and Mark Thompson (Open Society Media Program editors) Francesca Fanucci

EDITORIAL COMMISSION Yuen-Ying Chan, Christian S. Nissen, Dusˇan Reljic´, Russell Southwood, Michael Starks, Damian Tambini The Editorial Commission is an advisory body. Its members are not responsible for the information or assessments contained in the Mapping Digital Media texts

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM TEAM Meijinder Kaur, program assistant; Morris Lipson, senior legal advisor; Miguel Castro, special projects manager; and Gordana Jankovic, director

OPEN SOCIETY INFORMATION PROGRAM TEAM Vera Franz, senior program manager; Darius Cuplinskas, director

10 August 2011 Contents

Mapping Digital Media ...... 4

Executive Summary ...... 6

Context ...... 11

Social Indicators ...... 12

Economic Indicators ...... 14

1. Media Consumption: Th e Digital Factor ...... 15 1.1 Digital Take-up ...... 15 1.2 Media Preferences ...... 19 1.3 News Providers ...... 24 1.4 Assessments ...... 28

2. Digital Media and Public or State-Administered Broadcasters ...... 30 2.1 Public Service and State Institutions ...... 30 2.2 Public Service Provision ...... 33 2.3 Assessments ...... 36

3. Digital Media and Society ...... 37 3.1 User-Generated Content (UGC) ...... 37 3.2 Digital Activism ...... 40 3.3 Assessments ...... 42

2 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 4. Digital Media and Journalism ...... 44 4.1 Impact on Journalists and Newsrooms ...... 44 4.2 Investigative Journalism ...... 52 4.3 Social and Cultural Diversity ...... 53 4.4 Political Diversity ...... 57 4.5 Assessments ...... 58

5. Digital Media and Technology ...... 60 5.1 Broadcasting Spectrum ...... 60 5.2 Digital Gatekeeping ...... 63 5.3 Telecommunications ...... 64 5.4 Assessments ...... 65

6. Digital Business ...... 66 6.1 Ownership ...... 66 6.2 Media Funding ...... 69 6.3 Media Business Models ...... 75 6.4 Assessments ...... 76

7. Policies, Laws, and Regulators ...... 77 7.1 Policies and Laws ...... 77 7.2 Regulators ...... 83 7.3 Government Interference ...... 87 7.4 Assessments ...... 88

8. Conclusions ...... 90 8.1 Media Today ...... 90 8.2 Media Tomorrow ...... 90

9. Recommendations ...... 92 9.1 Media Policy ...... 92 9.2 Media Law and Regulation...... 93 9.3 Public Service in the Media ...... 94

List of Abbreviations, Figures, Tables, Companies ...... 95

Bibliography ...... 98

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 3 Mapping Digital Media

Th e values that underpin good journalism, the need of citizens for reliable and abundant information, and the importance of such information for a healthy society and a robust democracy: these are perennial, and provide compass-bearings for anyone trying to make sense of current changes across the media landscape.

Th e standards in the profession are in the process of being set. Most of the eﬀ ects on journalism imposed by new technology are shaped in the most developed societies, but these changes are equally inﬂ uencing the media in less developed societies.

Th e Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policy-makers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate and inﬂ uence change. At the same time, this research creates a knowledge base, laying foundations for advocacy work, building capacity and enhancing debate.

Th e Media Program of the Open Society Foundations has seen how changes and continuity aff ect the media in diff erent places, redefi ning the way they can operate sustainably while staying true to values of pluralism and diversity, transparency and accountability, editorial independence, freedom of expression and information, public service, and high professional standards.

Th e Mapping Digital Media project assesses, in the light of these values, the global opportunities and risks that are created for media by the following developments: the switchover from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting, growth of new media platforms as sources of news, convergence of traditional broadcasting with telecommunications.

Covering 60 countries, the project examines how these changes aﬀ ect the core democratic service that any media system should provide—news about political, economic and social aﬀ airs.

4 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e aim of the Mapping Digital Media project is to assess the impact of these changes on the core democratic service that any media system should provide, namely news about political, economic and social aﬀ airs.

Th e Mapping Digital Media reports are produced by local researchers and partner organizations in each country. Cumulatively, these reports will provide a much-needed resource on the democratic role of digital media.

In addition to the country reports, the Open Society Media Program has commissioned research papers on a range of topics related to digital media. Th ese papers are published as the MDM Reference Series.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 5 Mapping Digital Media: Italy Executive Summary

Digital terrestrial television was introduced in Italy with the adoption of the Digital Broadcasting Law in 2001. Th e switch-oﬀ of analog broadcasting started in 2009 and is based on the progressive “digitization” of regional areas. Th e deadline for the deﬁ nitive switch-over from analog to digital broadcasting is set for 31 December 2012.

Th e transition to digital terrestrial radio (digital audio broadcasting, or DAB) is taking place at a slower pace. Unlike television, it does not require analog switch-oﬀ .

Viewers of digital terrestrial television and web TV increased considerably between 2007 and 2010, whereas viewers of satellite television, after increasing between 2007 and 2009, have since remained stable. On the other hand, analog television viewers decreased signiﬁ cantly between 2009 and 2010.

Some channels that used to be only available by satellite or pay-TV (such as RAI News and Sky Tg24) are now penetrating increasing numbers of households thanks to the digital terrestrial platform. Th is does not represent an increase of diversity in terms of content, but rather in terms of audience reach.

Th e television set remains the most common media device in Italian households. Th e national television news (previously available only in analog) and traditional newspapers are the media sources most used by Italians to obtain news about politics and daily news. However, a longitudinal analysis estimates that the percentage of Italians whose sole source of information was television decreased from 46.6 to 26.4 percent between 2006 and 2009.

Th e television landscape, including news, is dominated by the public service broadcaster RAI and by Mediaset, the private broadcaster controlled by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, currently serving his third term (1994–1995, 2001–2006, and 2008–).

6 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY RAI and Mediaset still achieve average nationwide audiences of approximately 41 percent and 37 percent. By contrast, the other broadcasters on digital and analog channels (including the nationwide broadcaster La7 and all local broadcasters) manage no more than approximately 10 percent. Th is is the Italian broadcasting duopoly.

While RAI is still competitive on traditional analog channels, it is struggling to match its traditional market share on new platforms. Despite the increase in supply of channels, migration to other platforms has turned into a loss for RAI of 5.4 percentage audience share points between 2003 and 2009.

Traditional newspapers are the media sector most inﬂ uenced by technological innovation and the global economic crisis. Newspaper sales have been in long-term decline, fuelling concerns over whether professional journalism is ﬁ nancially sustainable in the long term. Th e percentage of readers of printed newspapers has dropped dramatically.

A major change in news quality has occurred in online news, with the creation of tens of small online newsrooms that provide local news and the proliferation of blogs, forums etc., where readers can discuss mainstream media news. Some newsrooms have taken a strategic decision to join social networks to establish close dialogue with readers. Numerous online newspapers rely on readers’ help to gather stories and narratives on social issues or current events. All these accounts are constantly available online in updatable news archives.

Real-time pressure of online news production has aff ected journalists’ ethics of verifi cation, leading to compromises on the extent to which stories are verifi ed. Th is change is accentuated in online journalism by the “luxury” of being able to correct or change stories post-publication and in real time, which lessens the perceived need to get it right fi rst time.

Also, digitization has not enhanced the prospects for investigative journalism, which remains the preserve of the large television networks. Investigative journalism is expensive, and online newsrooms cannot aﬀ ord it. However, digitization has enhanced the dissemination and impact of investigative journalism’s ﬁ ndings. Internet take-up at home is plagued by the slow growth of broadband, which lags behind most of the EU countries, and by access divides, particularly between regions in the north and south and between rural and urban areas. Nonetheless, the percentage of regular internet users now represents more than half of the population. Almost 90 percent of regular users are aged 14–29.

Internet use is heavily linked to the search for news. More than half of the users who consult the internet mainly for news still consult the websites of the traditional news publishers. Research indicates that three quarters of the population believe content on the internet should always be freely accessible to users.

Internet use has been marked by an increase in the use of blogs and by consistent growth of the most popular social networking websites (in particular, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter). Th e main activity of both citizen and journalist blogs consists of discussing, commenting and critically reviewing the mainstream media.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 7 In recent years, Italy has seen the advent of civic movements originating from the internet. Th e best-known concerns a television comedian, Beppe Grillo, who left center stage in the mainstream media to launch a counter-information blog in 2005. Since then, Grillo’s blog has gained ever-growing numbers of followers and has led to the organization of nationwide street demonstrations such as the “V-Day” in September 2007, aimed at protesting against corruption in Italian politics.

Th ere have been no substantial changes in media business models as a result of digitization: the license fee and advertising sources for RAI remain the same, and commercial digital media continue to be funded primarily by advertising.

Th ere has been a slight decrease in advertising revenue. Th e proceeds from pay-per-view are increasing, favoring Sky Italia, which for the time being still operates via satellite, and Mediaset, which has shifted a great deal of pay-per-view content to terrestrial digital television.

Companies which invest in online advertising continue to grow. Th e advertising spend on the internet grew by more than 6.5 percent in the ﬁ rst three months of 2010 against the same period in 2009. However, Google Italia almost entirely monopolizes advertising connected with the search function. Nonetheless, the migration of advertisers online, while disproportionately favoring Google, has spurred a growth in online information sites.

Th ere has been a signiﬁ cant rise in revenues from electronic publishing in Italy. Most publishing companies have penetrated the digital market—mainly using the internet—but this source of revenue does not compensate for the whole publishing sector’s losses.

Digitization has not impacted signiﬁ cantly on television ownership. Th e television market is still characterized by the traditional RAI-Mediaset duopoly, which results from the lack of adequate legislation regulating the competitive landscape. Th e entry of Sky Italia into the market via satellite broadcasting has arguably enlarged the duopoly to a “triopoly”. However, RAI and Mediaset continue to jointly control around 80 percent of the audience ratings against some 10 percent for Sky Italia.

Spectrum allocation policy has favored incumbents in both broadcasting and telecommunications. Legislative intervention has on several occasions obstructed the entry of new operators, to the point that in 2006 the European Commission opened an infringement procedure against Italy for violation of the European rules on electronic communications.

In January 2008, the European Court of Justice oﬃ cially acknowledged, in a case involving new operator Centro Europa 7 against the Ministry of Communications and the regulator AGCOM, that the Italian norms regulating the transition from analog to digital broadcasting technology restricted the entry of new operators in the digital market in favor of the incumbent operators. Subsequently, the Italian authorities committed to adopt a national plan setting out new criteria for allocating digital frequencies. Th is concession led the European Commission to suspend the infringement procedure against Italy, reserving the right to resume it any time while monitoring the implementation of the plan.

8 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e plan has raised several controversies, considering that in the meantime analog switch-oﬀ has continued on a regional basis. As a consequence, the implementation of the new national plan risks subverting the allocation of certain frequencies that has already taken place at regional level.

Furthermore, the criteria established for allocating digital multiplexes—through a “beauty contest” based on the quality of the oﬀ er and previous experience—have raised concerns about the potential for perpetuating RAI and Mediaset’s hegemony in the new digital environment. Th reats also exist of a new RAI–Mediaset duopoly in the ownership and management of the digital transmission infrastructure.

Finally, the plan delegates the responsibility for issuing licenses for terrestrial digital and cable frequencies to the Ministry of Communications, instead of AGCOM. Aside from the fact that AGCOM would be better qualiﬁ ed to issue such licenses, the most worrying aspect of this delegation is the conﬂ ict of interest characterizing the present Government, led as it is by the owner of the Mediaset media empire.

Over the years, public subsidies to digitization have decreased, partly owing to the decreasing costs of decoders and digital television sets. In 2007, the government introduced tax deductions for the purchase of television sets with integrated decoders. However, this provision was not renewed. For 2010, the government provided only meager funding, reserved for elderly persons on very low incomes, to encourage the purchase of interactive decoders. As for 2011, the Fund for the Transition to Digital Broadcasting, also aimed at facilitating access to digital television for economically disadvantaged families, has been further reduced.

Th e legal framework for radio and television broadcasting has undergone major changes during 2010 following the entry into eff ect of Legislative Decree no. 44/2010 (the so-called Decreto Romani). Th e Decreto Romani has introduced a new and very general defi nition of “audiovisual media service” which comprises analog and digital television, live streaming, webcasting, and pay-per-view audiovisual services. Th e legislation has excluded from this defi nition the websites, blogs, and online periodicals that transmit videos for information purposes, although uncertainties persist in regard to the equivalence between hosting provider sites such as YouTube and television broadcasting stations. Th e Decree also distinguishes between “linear” and “non- linear” services and foresees a minimum of “content regulation” common to all suppliers of audiovisual services, and only slightly tighter regulation of linear audiovisual services.

In recent years, co-regulatory codes of conduct have been created ad hoc for the internet. One example is the Internet and Minors Code endorsed by the government and some of the most representative providers’ associations, and in force since 2003.

Overall, this report shows that even in the digital era, the Italian news media operate under sustained political pressure. However, the growing diﬀ usion of “Web 2.0” has created unprecedented room for new media and new contents, and may eventually represent a credible alternative to information provided by the traditional media.

9 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e overall framework of policy and law seems to be only partly adequate to the challenges of digitization. Th e policies enacted by the Government do not appear “neutral” with respect to the diﬀ erent media, but primarily directed toward maintaining the RAI–Mediaset duopoly in both the free-to-air television and advertising markets.

Digitization appears to be weakening local broadcasters, who have played an important role historically in safeguarding freedom of information. Th e multiplication of the national channels, especially RAI and Mediaset, has caused an important decrease in terms of audience and advertising income of local and regional broadcasters.

In this context, the report calls on civil society, NGOs, and international organizations to urge the reform of legislation on confl icts of interest between political/institutional roles on one hand and media ownership on the other. Th ey should also monitor the last stage of digital switch-over, the fi nal allocation of the digital spectrum, and the resulting state of media pluralism, in order to verify that Parliament’s and the Government’s actions do not privilege the existing RAI–Mediaset duopoly or favor companies close to the Prime Minister. Th e report also recommends legislative reform to strengthen the independence of AGCOM. Th e Government should be excluded from appointing any board members, who should be appointed not only by Parliament but also by other institutions, such as the President of the Republic or the Regions. Moreover, both the level of competence and the guarantee of independence required to be a member of AGCOM should be defi ned and implemented more rigorously.

Finally, the report calls for reform of the appointment procedure for the board and Director General of RAI. Traditionally based on “dividing the spoils” (lottizzazione) between government, the parliamentary majority, and the opposition, this procedure appears to be incompatible with Council of Europe principles on the independence of public service broadcasting. Reform should be prepared through extensive consultation with all sectors of society.

Note Th is report is the result of the work and discussion of the three authors. However, Gianpietro Mazzoleni drafted the Context and section 8, Giulio Vigevani drafted sections 7 and 9, and Sergio Splendore drafted sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

10 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Context

Th e recent global economic crisis had a heavy impact on Italian gross domestic product (GDP), leading to a year-on-year contraction of 4.6 percent in 2009, when consumer spending decreased by 0.9 percent year- on-year. Th e crisis led to a signifi cant fall in exports and enhanced the economic gap between the center and north of the country (where areas of high productivity are concentrated) and the south (where productivity is relatively low and the crisis has led to stagnation). Although there are positive dynamics in some southern regions and areas of diffi culty in the center and north, the most critical rates of unemployment occur in the south (Calabria and Sicily). In 2008, national employment fell overall and consequently the eff ect of the crisis on households and consumption deepened.

Some 44.6 percent of Italy’s population lives in highly urbanized cities (500-plus inhabitants per square kilometer), 39.3 percent in medium urbanized municipalities (100-plus inhabitants per square kilometer), and the remainder in low urbanized or rural zones. Th e smaller municipalities (up to 1,000 hectares) are among the most densely populated areas, particularly in the south, where they reach a peak of 920 inhabitants per square kilometer. Overall, the urban population is estimated at 67 percent.1

1. See the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) website, available at http://en.istat.it/istat/ (accessed 11 March 2011).

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 11 Social Indicators2

Population (number of inhabitants): 60.0 million (2010) Number of households: 23.1 million (2010)

Figure 1. Rural–urban breakdown (% of total population)

Rural 33% Urban 67%

Figure 2. Ethnic composition (% of total population)

North African** 2.0% Other 1.5% Other European* 4.0% Italian 92.5%

Notes: * Mostly Albanian, Romanian, and Ukrainian. ** Mostly Berber.

2. Isimm Ricerche, 2008: Un Anno di informazione televisiva (2008: A Year of Television Information), Morlacchi Editore, Rome, 2009 (hereafter, Isimm Ricerche, 2008).

12 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Figure 3. Linguistic composition (% of total population)

Other* 5.0%

Italian 95.0%

Note: * French, Albanian, Slovenian, German, and Romanian.

Figure 4. Religious composition (% of total population)3

Other Christian 2.0% Muslim 1.8% Other 9.2%

Roman Catholic* 87.0%

Note: * Approximately one-third practicing.

3. Data on religious composition depends on immigration and is subject to rapid change.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 13 Economic Indicators

Table 1. Economic indicators

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010f 2011f 2012f

GDP (current prices), 1,780 1,865 2,119 2,307 2,118 2,121 2,159 2,220 in US$

GDP (current prices), 24,613 25,419 26,259 26,423 25,441 25,829 26,394 27,106 per head in US$

Gross National Income (GNI), 28,060 30,180 31,550 32,190 31,360 n/a n/a n/a per head, current US$

Unemployment 7.7 6.8 6.1 6.8 8.2 9.4 n/a n/a (% of labor force)

Inﬂ ation (average annual rate 2.0 2.1 1.8 3.3 1.8 1.2 1.7 1.8 in % against previous year) Note: n/a = not available. f: forecast. Sources: Istat Annual 2010, available at http://en.istat.it/dati/catalogo/ricerca.php?tipo=n&ciclo=0&stringa=&num_collana= &anni%5B%5D=2010 (last accessed 25 August 2011); International Monetary Fund (IMF) for GDP and inﬂ ation forecasts; Th e World Bank for GNI..

14 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 1. Media Consumption: The Digital Factor

1.1 Digital Take-up

Since 1993, spending on communication hardware—television receivers, personal computers, mobile phones, etc.—and services, such as satellite, cable, and broadband subscriptions, grew steadily until 2009, when it shrank by 2 percent year-on-year. Th e exception in 2009 was digital terrestrial television, which saw a 35 percent increase over 2008, due to the preparation of the planned switch-oﬀ in ﬁ ve of Italy’s 21 regions.

Digital terrestrial television was fi rst introduced in Italy with the adoption of the Digital Broadcasting Law 2001. Th e initial 2006 deadline for the defi nitive switch-over from analog to digital broadcasting was repeatedly postponed and switch-over is now set for 31 December 2012. Th e switch-off of analog broadcasting only started in 2009, and is based on the progressive “digitization” of regional areas.4

Th e transition to digital terrestrial radio (digital audio broadcasting, or DAB) is taking place at a slower pace; unlike television, it does not require analog switch-oﬀ . In 2008, the Italian Digital Radio Association (Associazione per la Radiofonia Digitale in Italia, ARD) was launched to promote the development of digital radio technology. Th e founding members of ARD are: RAI Way (the 100-percent RAI-owned company that manages the signal transmission for public service broadcaster RAI), Aeranti Corallo (the trade association of commercial and community radio broadcasters), and Associated National Radios (RNA), an association of national radio editors.5

In December 2009, following a study by the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni, AGCOM) on the development of the traditional standards of DAB and their upgrade to DAB+ and DMB (Digital Media Broadcasting) technologies, a new regulation was approved

4. Article 16 of the Law No. 222 of 29 November 2007, which in Annex I and II sets up a timetable for the progressive digitization in regional areas in Italy. 5. See the ARD website, available at http://www.arditalia.it/joomla/.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 15 to discipline the progressive introduction of digital terrestrial radio broadcasting.6 However, the regulation does not mandate a switch-over from analog to digital terrestrial transmission—unlike in the television sector. Th e new digital radio networks are expected to supplement, not replace, the existing analog frequency modulation (FM) transmissions.

Th e planning of the new frequencies will be structured on a regional and sub-regional basis following the switch-oﬀ of analog television networks and the subsequent availability of the VHF–III band space for digital radio.

1.1.1 Digital Equipment Th e availability of digital equipment has in part been driven by the digital decoders oﬀ ered by television and telecoms companies, namely Mediaset Premium,7 Telecom Italia, Vodafone, and the Italian Association for the Development of Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting (Associazione Italiana per lo Sviluppo della TV Digitale Terrestre, DGTVi), which aim to bring broadband internet to television sets.

Th e same considerations apply to smartphones, where convergence is even more intricate. At the global level, ﬁ rst Apple, then Google, and now Microsoft have intensiﬁ ed joint ventures in the production of smartphones intended mainly for internet use.

Table 2. Household ownership of media equipment in Italy, 2005–2009

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 No of % of No of % of No of % of No of % of No of % of No of % of HH8 HH9 HH10 HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HH (‘000) (‘000) (‘000) (‘000) (‘000) (‘000)

TV set n/a n/a 23,311 100.0 23,600 100.0 23,907 100.0 24,282 100.0 24,641 100.0

PC 10,166 46 11,189 48 12,508 53 13,387 56% 14,812 61 n/a n/a Note: HH = households; PC: personal computer; TV: televison; n/a = not available. Sources: Open Society Institute (OSI), calculations based on data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU); Me- diametrie/Eurodata TV Worldwide.

6. Th e text of AGCOM’s regulation on digital radio is available at http://www.agcom.it/Default.aspx?message=viewdocument&DocID=3591. 7. Mediaset is the incumbent company in the television sector which is trying to take advantage of switch-over by oﬀ ering pay-per-view services (see section 6.2.1). 8. Total number of households owning the equipment. 9. Percentage of total number of households in the country. 10. Total number of households owning the equipment.

16 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e television set remains the most common media device in Italian households. Italians use this platform to access news in particular, among other types of media content. In some cases, as we shall see, their preferred watching includes new digital channels which have news as their core business.11 At the same time, mobile handsets have acquired a prominent role and are changing the entire media market. Th e increase in personal computers is less impressive, and is linked to the diﬀ usion in broadband infrastructure. Without broadband connection guaranteed everywhere, diﬀ usion will be slow. As mobile coverage is, by contrast, widespread, Italian mobile users prefer to access the internet via their handsets.

1.1.2 Platforms Table 3 shows the growth of digital broadcasting platforms, which is largely due to the imminent digital switch-over (DSO) and the policy and campaign behind it. It also shows a surge in terrestrial reception in parallel with the lack of development of cable television.

Table 3. Platform for the main television reception and digital take-up in Italy, 2006–2010

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 No of % of No of % of No of % of No of % of No of % of HH12 TVHH13 HH TVHH HH TVHH HH TVHH HH TVHH (‘000) (‘000) (‘000) (‘000) (‘000)

Terrestrial reception 14,453 62.0 15,340 65.0 n/a n/a n/a n/a 22,547 91.5 – of which digital* n/a n/a n/a n/a 5,116 21.4 12,165 50.1 18,653 75.7

Cable reception 3,660 15.0 n/a n/a 359 1.5 n/a n/a n/a n/a – of which digital n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a

Satellite reception 5,385 23.0 5,428 23.0 6,479 27.1 6,580 27.1 7,269 29.5 – of which digital n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a

IPTV n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 413 1.7 517 2.1

Total 23,331 100.0 23,600 100.0 23,907 100.0 24,282 100.0 24,641 120.0 – of which digital n/a n/a n/a n/a 10,304 43.1 n/a n/a n/a n/a Note: n/a = not available. * only. Sources: Mediametrie/Eurodata TV Worldwide.

11. See AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010 sull’attività svolta e sui programmi di lavoro (2010 Annual Report on Activity and Program of Work), 2010, available at http://www.agcom.it/Default.aspx?message=viewrelazioneannuale&idRelazione=19 (accessed 9 March 2011) (hereafter, AG- COM, Relazione annuale 2010); and Censis, Ottavo rapporto sulla comunicazione: I Media tra crisi e metamorfosi (Eighth Report on Communica- tion: Th e Media Between Crisis and Metamorphosis), Franco Angeli, Milan, 2009, (hereafter, Censis, Ottavo rapporto sulla comunicazione); and Censis, Nono rapporto Censis sulla comunicazione: I media personali nell’era digitale (Ninth Report on Communication: Personal Media in the Digital Era), written in co-operation with Ucsi (Italian Catholic Press Union), 2010, (hereafter, Censis, Nono rapporto Censis sulla comunicazione). 12. Total number of households owning the equipment. 13. Percentage of total number of television-owning households (TVHH) in the country.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 17 Although broadband penetration is relatively limited, the diﬀ usion of 3G mobile has had the positive eﬀ ect of enlarging internet access generally. However, this presents Italy with certain infrastructural problems.

Th e question of internet penetration in Italy, with its implications for digital divides, is linked to the diff usion of broadband. Although the growth of broadband still lags behind much of the European Union (EU), it is certainly increasing. Th ere are 11.7 million households with broadband technology (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is most widespread and represents 97 percent of all broadband connections), all with various subscriptions (fl at-rate subscriptions for 24-hour internet connections are increasingly common).14 In this fi eld, however, national policies do not seem to be moving in the direction of greater broadband diff usion (investment has been frozen until 2012). As a consequence, the local authorities have taken action.15

Table 4. Internet subscriptions and mobile phone subscriptions in Italy as % of total population, 2005–2010

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Internet 30.1 33.0 38.0 42.0 47.3 51.8

of which broadband 26.4 31.0 34.0 42.3 44.5 57.1

Mobile telephony 121.9 136.3 151.4 151.5 147.0 n/a

of which 3G 13.9 21.3 26.2 32.5 36.2 n/a Note: n/a = not available. Source:s OSI calculations based on data from Isimm Ricerche, 2010; Conﬁ ndustria, 2010; ITMediaConsulting, 2010; AGCOM, 2006–2010; and ITU.

Th e following tables show the penetration of ﬁ xed-network internet region by region, and then give the ﬁ gures for broadband penetration. It is evident that the digital divide is not only between the north and south of the country, but also between urban and rural areas, with the regional capitals being much better endowed with these technologies than the rest of the country.

14. For the most recent data, see AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010. 15. Th e provincial administration of Rome is creating the largest area in Italy of free Wi-Fi (see La Repubblica, 11 November 2009, p. 29).

18 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Figure 5. Internet penetration in Italy, regional breakdown

100.0%

81.1 80.0% 75.6 72.0 74.0 66.6

60.0% 54.6

44.9 46.3 40.4 40.7 40.0%

20.0%

0.0% North-East North-West Central Area South and islands Regional capitals

Internet penetration (% of total households) Broadband penetration (% of total households)

Source: AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010.

Data issued by the European Commission in 2009 place Italy in second place after Poland for the development of mobile network broadband.16 In fact, sales of USB modems for mobile broadband and cellular routers boomed in 2008, with around three million items sold.17 Sales of smartphones in 2009 also went up with around 12 million sales, of which 4.2 million are used for regular internet access.18 All in all, more than 33 million Italians own mobile technology able to support evolved applications.

1 .2 Media Preferences

1.2.1 Main Shifts in News Consumption Given that analog switch-oﬀ only started in 2009 and is not yet complete, data on public attitudes to change may be misleading. Nevertheless, the 2009 and 2010 survey by Censis provides important indications.19 Th ese are not speciﬁ cally related to news as such, but rather to the ways in which Italians consider the new digital television environment and its contents. Although 43.6 percent of respondents in 2009 considered that the new media environment will enlarge the range of choice, a large proportion remain skeptical about

16. AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010. 17. Th is market is controlled by the three main telecommunications companies delivering mobile services; in fact, Telecom Italia, 3 Italy, and Voda- fone each has a one-third share of the market (AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010). 18. Confi ndustria data estimate that in the fi rst quarter of the year, 9.7 million Italians, equal to 20 percent of the population, accessed the web via mobile telephony, with a 30 percent increase on the previous year. See Confi ndustria, e-Content 2010. 4° Rapporto sul mercato dei contenuti digitali in Italia (e-Content 2010. 4th Report on the Digital Content Market in Italy), Rome, 18 June 2010, available at http://www.confi ndustriasi. it/news-928.html (hereafter, Confi ndustria, e-Content 2010). 19. Censis, Ottavo rapporto sulla comunicazione, p. 84; and Censis, Nono rapporto Censis sulla comunicazione, press release, 2010, available at http://www.censis.it (accessed on 17 July 2011). Th e data in both reports is based on interviews of a representative sample of about 1,200 persons aged 14–80.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 19 these innovations: “I don’t care, I just watch traditional TV,” was the answer for 24.4 percent of interviewees, followed by “It is just a way to make us pay for what we used to watch for free” (21.9 percent), and “It is too complicated, I lose interest in watching TV” (10.2 percent).20

However, as Table 5 shows, there was a considerable increase in viewers of digital terrestrial television and web TV between 2007 and 2010, whereas viewers of satellite television, after an increase between 2007 and 2009, have remained stable in the last couple of years. On the other hand, analog television viewers have gone down considerably between 2009 and 2010, and the percentage of readers of printed newspapers has dropped dramatically.

Table 5. Shift in media use in Italy, 2007–2009 (% of population)21 2007 2009 2010 Difference in percentage points between 2009 and 2010 Analog television 92.1 91.7 64.6 + 27.1 Satellite television 27.3 35.4 35.2 - 0.2 Digital terrestrial television 13.4 28.0 76.4 + 48.4 Web TV 4.6 15.2 17.8 + 2.6 Newspapers 67.0 54.8 47.8 —7 Free newspapers 34.7 35.7 37.5 + 1.8 Online magazines/ dailies 21.1 17.7 18.2 + 0.5 Weekly magazines 40.3 26.1 28.5 + 2.4 Radio* 77.7 81.2 80.0 - 1.2 Mobile phone (basic) 48.3 70.0 64.5 - 5.5 Smartphone 30.1 14.3 17.6 + 3.3 Internet 45.3 47.0 53.1 + 6.1 Note: * Includes traditional radio as well as internet, MP3, car, and mobile phone radio Source: Censis, 2009 and 2010

On the contrary, the percentage of regular internet users has steadily risen and now represents more than half of the population. It is noteworthy that 87.4 percent of users are aged 14–29.

Th e Censis reports also highlight that between 2007 and 2010, the number of people who never use the internet dropped from 71 percent to 51.3 percent, narrowing the so-called digital divide. At the same time, the number of people who used radio, television, and the internet but did not read the press increased from 33.9 percent in 2007 to 45.6 percent in 2010 (an increase of 11.7 percent). Th is phenomenon—called the

20. Other possible replies are missing from this list. Th e ﬁ nal total is not 100 percent because interviewees were allowed to choose more than one answer on the questionnaire. 21. Censis, Ottavo rapporto sulla comunicazione. “General users” signiﬁ es all those who used the medium at least once a week.

20 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY “press divide” in the reports—is partly explained by the ﬁ nding that 28.7 percent of young people below the age of 30 do not read newspapers, magazines, or books, and are instead regular internet, television, mobile phone, and radio users.

It is also worth noting the signiﬁ cant drop in the use of basic mobile phones, attributed in the report to the economic crisis between 2007 and 2009, which probably reduced their sales.

Th e obstinacy of long-established habits in the choice of television channels emerges clearly from the analysis of audience data, which shows that, despite the new oﬀ er (mostly in the ﬁ eld of pay-TV but also in free-to- air broadcasting on digital (see section 1.2.2)), the established broadcasters such as Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) and Mediaset’s Reti Televisive Italiane (RTI–Mediaset) are still achieving average nationwide audiences of 41.41 percent and 39.29 percent, respectively.22 By contrast, the other broadcasters on digital and analog channels (including the nationwide broadcaster La7 and all local broadcasters) manage no more than 9.94 percent. Moreover, as of June 2010, the data show that only 24 percent of users choose digital, and even when they do so, there is a tendency to opt for traditional types of content.23

Internet use in Italy is heavily linked to the search for news. According to Censis, 47.9 percent of internet users in 2009—among other online activities—look for news, with growth of 7.3 percent over the previous year.24

Table 6. Uses of the internet in Italy, 2009 Ranking Category Users (’000) Change (%) 2008–2009 Percentage of the total (users) 1 Web search provider 20.653 9 87.6 2 Portals 19,339 6 82.1 3 Community 18,124 12 76.9 4 E-mail 15,027 4 63.8 5 Video/Film 14,026 18 59.5 6 Software producers 13,429 12 57.0 7 News 13,236 12 55.6 8 Web services 13.102 12 55.6 9 Search engines 12.379 12 52.5 10 Merchandise (e-commerce) 11.662 5 49.3 Source: Conﬁ ndustria, 2010.

22. G. Mazzoleni and G. Vigevani, “Italy,” in Television Across Europe: More Channels, Less Independence, Open Society Institute, Budapest, 2008 (hereafter, G. Mazzoleni and G. Vigevani, “Italy”). 23. Th e authors’ elaboration on data available at http://www.auditel.it/ (accessed 9 March 2011). 24. Censis, Ottavo rapporto sulla comunicazione. Th e report does not specify whether it is hard or soft news. Th e most frequent activities are sending and receiving emails (76.1 percent), consulting websites for knowledge (58.3 percent), and looking for details about goods or services (66.3 percent). Th ese ﬁ ndings have been corroborated by two other sources: Conﬁ ndustria, e-Content 2010, and web information company Alexa (see http://www.alexa.com/).

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 21 Th e number of internet users who read newspapers and news content online rose in 2007–2009, with over 46 percent of Italian users doing so in 2009. Th is percentage fell, however, in 2010.

Figure 6. Reading of newspapers and news on the internet in Italy, 2007–2010

50.0% 46.7 44.0

40.0% 38.4

31.3 30.0%

40.0%

10.0%

0.0% 2007 2008 2009 2010

Note: Expressed in % of total users older than six years of age Source: Isimm Ricerche, 2007; Censis, 2008, 2009, 2010.

According to Alexa, among the top 20 websites consulted in Italy, those for news are followed by portals, community sites and providers, and social networks. Th e website of the daily newspaper La Repubblica comes 10th (ahead of Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, YouTube, MSN, and others); Corriere.it, belonging to the daily Corriere della Sera, comes 13th, and Gazzetta.it, the site of the sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, 18th.25

More than half of the users, 52.6 percent, who consult the internet mainly for news still obtain information by going to the websites of the traditional news publishers: La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera, and Gazzetta dello Sport. Th ese are, in fact, the most popular newspapers in Italy.

Research indicates that three quarters of the population (74.9 percent) believe content on the internet should always be freely accessible to users. Interestingly, half of this proportion (49.3 percent) comprises youths aged 14–29. Th e remaining 25 percent of the population, however, says that some content should be paid for: more speciﬁ cally, 15.4 percent says “it is fair to pay for quality content in order not to detract resources from professionalism,” whereas 9.6 percent says that content should be paid for because “freedom of expression also depends on publishers’ funds.”26

Last but not least, it is important to note that a longitudinal analysis—with its focus on 2002, 2006, and 2009—estimated that the percentage of Italians whose sole source of information was television decreased

25. Audiweb data for May 2010 show an average of 1,198,186 monthly users for Repubblica.it, 996,954 for Corriere.it, and 681,089 for Gazzetta. it, according to calculations of the report’s authors (see http://www.audiweb.it/dati (accessed 9 March 2011)). 26. Censis, Nono rapporto Censis sulla comunicazione.

22 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY from 46.6 to 28.2 and then to 26.4 percent over this period. At the very least, this suggests a shift in media preferences when it comes to searching for news and information in general.

1.2.2 Availability of a Diverse Range of News Sources Th e above analysis suggests that although Italian media habits seem fairly resistant to radical change, the proliferation of news platforms has increased pluralism in television. In 2010, 76 percent of households could receive digital television (see section 1.1.2). Th ese households have access to a rich bouquet of channels which include news as well as education and entertainment. For instance, Class News is a brand new, all- news channel now available throughout the country, as well as Repubblica TV. Rai News and BBC World News, available until 2008 on satellite only, are now available for the digital terrestrial market. Cielo—a new channel broadcast by Sky Italia—oﬀ ers Sky Tg24 (Sky television news) free to digital television audiences. Tg24 was hitherto available only to satellite television subscribers.

RAI News ﬁ gures among the 10 most popular newly available digital television channels.27 However, its average rating is around 0.4 percent, making it the preferred channel of only 95,000 viewers. A similar reservation applies to Tg24: although it ﬁ gures among the 10 largest channels on Sky Italia’s satellite pay-TV platform in terms of audience, its highest viewership amounts to only 80,000 viewers.28

Th ere are, however, two further points to take into account. Both these channels can be viewed via web- streaming. Th is illustrates the feature of digitization that enables channels to exploit new platforms at relatively low marginal cost to syndicate content and expand their audience reach.

As for sources of information, the internet has done more than television to enhance content diversity. Th ere are two reasons for this: 1) Every major offl ine news outlet has its own website providing information, interpretations, opinions, blogs, and (sometimes) original content.29 2) Online-only news websites have entered the market, providing news for free. Local news sites are particularly developed in this sector.30 Most (70) of these are represented by the National Association of Online Newspapers (Associazione Nazionale Stampa Online, ANSO). Th e number of unique visitors to the 70 news sites grouped in ANSO hovers around 3.5 million every month. Within this association there are diff erent kinds of news organizations: from effi cient and well-organized newsrooms to neighborhood journalism that relies on the work of volunteers in new forms of citizen journalism.

27. See Auditel data, available at http://www.auditel.it/dati (accessed 14 March 2011). 28. Starcom elaboration available at www.primaonline.it/dati-e-cifre-stampa/?cat=62. 29. Television news and current aff airs, weekly and monthly magazines, radio stations, and press agencies all have their own websites which provide news for free. 30. Th is is not an Italian peculiarity. Th e United States was fi rst to move into this fi eld. See M. Gaggi and M. Bardazzi, L’Ultima notizia: dalla crisi degli imperi di carta al paradosso dell’era di vetro (Th e Last News: From the Crisis of the Empires to the Paradoxes of the Glass Age), Rizzoli, Milan, 2010 (hereafter, M. Gaggi, and M. Bardazzi, L’Ultima notizia); E. Pedemonte, Morte e resurrezione dei giornali: chi li uccide, chi li salverà (Th e Death and Resurrection of Newspapers: Who is Killing Th em, and Who Will Save Th em), Garzanti, Milan, 2010.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 23 Th e new distribution technologies and their take-up by many households have increased the ﬂ ow of information to consumers. But although a niche of consumers consults new information channels via the internet and the smartphone, a more signiﬁ cant portion adheres to a more traditional media diet. According to the most recent studies on media consumption in Italy, the spread of new media has not killed traditional outlets: “In the digital society, new media do not replace old ones; on the contrary, they accompany them and create new stimuli to their use according to the logic of multiplication and integration.”31

1.3. News Providers

1.3.1 Leading Sources of News Th e national television news (previously available only in analog) and traditional newspapers are the media sources most used by Italians to obtain news about politics, daily news, and relevant personal news.32

According to Censis, 80.9 percent of Italians use television news programs as their main source of information. In second place are radio news programs, used by 56.4 percent of the population, then daily newspapers (47.7 percent), periodical magazines (46.5 percent), and Televideo (45 percent).33 Th e other main sources used to obtain news are web search engines (41.4 percent), information websites (29.5 percent), Facebook (26.8 percent), online newspapers (21.8 percent), and “all news” television channels (16.3 percent).

1.3.1.1 Print Media Traditional newspapers are the media sector most infl uenced by technological innovation and the global economic crisis. In Italy, as all over the world, there is animated debate on the crisis of newspapers.34 Leading newspaper groups were certainly hit hard by the fi nancial crisis since 2008.35 Although these companies record an increase (sometimes remarkable) in users of their websites,36 overall newspaper sales have been in long-term decline, fuelling concerns over whether professional journalism is fi nancially sustainable in the long term.

31. Censis, “Nasce il press divide: i mezzi a stampa fuori dalla ‘dieta mediatica’ del 39,3% degli italiani” (Th e press divide is born: print media out of the media diet of 39.3 percent of Italians), press release, Rome, 19 November 2009, available at http://www.censis.it/10?resource_50=93095&re lational_resource_51=93095&relational_resource_385=93095&relational_resource_52=93095&relational_resource_381=93095&relational_ resource_382=93095&relational_resource_383=93095&relational_resource_384=93095 (accessed 11 March 2011). 32. Th ese categories of news (politics, daily news, and relevant personal news) enjoyed in 2009 the following respective rates of public consumption: 59.1 percent, 72.4 percent, and 72.9 percent for television; and 30.5 percent, 33 percent, and 35 percent for newspapers bought at kiosks. (Censis, Ottavo Rapporto sulla Comunicazione.) 33. Televideo is a teletext service broadcast on public television channels Rai Uno, Rai Due, and Rai Tre, and also on the internet. 34. See M. Gaggi and M. Bardazzi, L’Ultima notizia; M. Pratellesi, New Journalism: Teorie e tecniche del giornalismo multimediale (New Journalism: Th eories and Techniques of Multimedia Journalism) Mondadori, Milan, 2004; M. Russo and V. Zambardino, Eretici digitali: la rete è in pericolo, il giornalismo pure come salvarsi con un tradimento e 10 tesi (Digital Heretics: Th e Net Is In Danger, How Journalism Can Save Itself With a Betrayal and 10 Th eses) Apogeo, Milan, 2009. 35. Federazione Italiana Editori Giornali (FIEG, Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers), La Stampa in Italia 2007–2009, 2009, available at http://www.ﬁ eg.it/studi.asp, (hereafter, FIEG, La Stampa in Italia 2007–2009). 36. Th e business model relating to the distribution of online information by these companies is based on advertising. It is for this reason that users can consult these pages for free.

24 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e problem is even more signiﬁ cant because the printed press is commonly perceived as the media sector with the highest degree of pluralism.37

Figure 7. Total kiosk sales of newspapers, 2005–2009

5,600,000 2.00% 5,510,325 5,461,811 5,399,904 5,400,000 0.9 0.00%

5,200,000 –2.0 5,145,647 –2.00% –2.8 5,000,000

4,842,054 –4.00% –4.7 4,800,000 –5.9 –6.00% 4,600,000

4,400,000 –8.00% 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Average sales Change (%) year-on-year

Sources: FIEG, La Stampa in Italia 2007–2009.

Th is decline in total newspaper sales does not imply a change in readers’ choices within the sector: there is a general decrease, but readers keep reading the same newspapers. Historically, the tabloid formula has never been particularly popular in Italy,38 where “celebrity” gossip ﬁ lls the pages of numerous weekly magazines.

Italian newspapers are easily ranked by geography: only three have widespread national coverage (La Repubblica, Il Corriere della Sera, and Il Sole 24 Ore), while others are more popular at macro-regional level (the most important in terms of sales are La Stampa in the northwest and Il Messaggero in central Italy, alongside some 40 local newspapers). Th e table below shows that the decline has aﬀ ected both the national and regional leaders. At regional level, in particular, Il Messaggero, controlled by the Caltagirone family with ties to centrist political leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, has lost more than half its circulation, whereas Turin- based La Stampa, owned by automobile group Fiat, has managed to limit its losses.

37. See D.C. Hallin and P. Mancini, Comparing Media Systems: Th ree Models of Media and Politics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004 (hereafter, D.C. Hallin and P. Mancini, Comparing Media Systems); M. Polo, Notizie S.p.A. (News Inc.), Laterza, Rome–Bari, 2010. 38. P. Murialdi, La stampa italiana dalla Liberazione alla crisi di ﬁ ne secolo (Th e Italian Press From the Liberation to the Crisis At the End of the Century), Laterza, Rome–Bari, 1995.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 25 Table 7. Average sales of the ﬁ ve main quality daily newspapers, March 2010

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

La Repubblica 574,995 571,312 561,561 472,755 427,782

Il Corriere della Sera 597,390 600,426 575,634 530,252 455,388

La Stampa 263,946 267,351 265,469 264,260 253,260

Il Sole 24 Ore 189,170 205,508 205,292 185,139 165,471

Il Messaggero 226,646 218,936 148,262 147,913 100,541 Source: FIEG, 2010.

Th e weekly magazine market, like that for newspapers, is shrinking. But here there are clear discrepancies in the rate of decline between tabloid and non-tabloid formats, in favor of the former. Th e tabloid magazine sector includes certain weekly political magazines which, although they have relatively lower sales, play an important part in setting the media agenda. It is no coincidence, moreover, that the three best-selling weekly magazines in 2009 and 2010 are based on television listings, reﬂ ecting the centrality of television in the Italian media environment.39

Th e online data confi rms that the traditional newspapers are gaining signifi cant traction in the internet environment. On average, the most visited online editions of major newspapers are: Repubblica.it, Corriere. it, Ilsole24ore.it, and Lastampa.it. Th e increasing consumption of these major newspapers online partly explains the slow decline in newspaper circulation, which began before their online expansion. It is worth noting that in 2006, the fi fth-highest ranking news website was Varesenews.it, an online paper of local information. As we will discuss later, what is referred to as local online information is one of the most important features of digital media with respect to news diversity.

1.3.1.2 Television Th e television landscape, including news, is dominated by RAI, the public service broadcaster, and Mediaset, the privately owned broadcasting giant.

RAI continues to attract a very high percentage of the national television audience along with its main commercial competitor, Mediaset. On average during 2010, RAI attracted 41.4 percent of the television audience, while Mediaset commanded a 39.4 percent share. Th is shared dominance of the national audience has been relatively stable over recent years, with RAI losing just 2 percent of its existing national audience share since 2005.

39. See, for example, TV Sorrisi e Canzoni, DiPiù TV, and Telesette. Th e other two are women’s weekly magazines with a special focus on gossip: Chi and Io Donna. Monthly sales in 2010 for the top ﬁ ve weekly magazines were, respectively, as follows: 790,803; 478,350; 433,430; 362,306; and 396,528. Data from Audipress, available at http://www.audipress.it/ (accessed 11 March 2011).

26 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e RAI–Mediaset duopoly is a fundamental feature of the Italian television market, and results from the lack of adequate legislation regulating the competitive landscape. Th e duopoly, which had existed de facto since broadcasting was opened to the private sector in 1975, was legitimised in 1990 by a law which allowed a single entity to hold three national licenses at the same time.40

In July 2009, AGCOM announced that a third private operator, News Corporation’s satellite pay-TV broadcaster Sky Italia, had surpassed Mediaset in total revenues for 2008.41 Th e government hailed this as evidence of the demise of the traditional RAI–Mediaset duopoly, and of the opening of the television market to pluralism. However, when other key competitive indicators such as audience and advertising shares are taken into account, RAI and Mediaset continue to jointly control around 80 percent of the audience ratings against some 10 percent for Sky Italia. In addition, Sky Italia’s high revenues derive mainly from the annual subscription fees paid by a limited number of people, whereas the other two broadcasters derive most of their revenue from advertising.42 Furthermore, as shown by the AGCOM Annual Report 2011, Mediaset in 2010 surpassed Sky Italia again in total revenues (see section 6.2.1.1).

Th e launch of terrestrial digital television is seen by many as an opportunity to build up new competition and break up the RAI–Mediaset duopoly for good. However, there are concerns that the ongoing process of digitization will make it virtually impossible for new operators to enter the broadcast market and therefore perpetuate the duopoly.

1. 3.2 Television News Programs Th e most viewed television news programs have remained the same since 2006, albeit with slight diﬀ erentiation in audience share.

Table 8. Average audience share of the ﬁ ve main TV news bulletins, 2006–2010 (as % of total TV audience at time of broadcast)43

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Tg1 28.06 28.59 25.59 25.39 25.02 Tg2 6.91 9.77 10.96 10.44 10.48 Tg3 11.78 11.28 12.14 11.41 10.42 Tg5 22.45 20.92 20.99 20.26 19.17 Studio Aperto 9.17 9.70 10.59 7.57 7.89 Source: Auditel, 2010.

40. Law Regulating Public and Private Broadcasting, no. 223 of 6 August 1990, Gazzetta uﬃ ciale, no. 185 of 9 August 1990 (known as the “Mammì Law”, from the name of the author), (hereafter, Law No. 223 of 6 August 1990). 41. AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010 sull’attività svolta e sui programmi di lavoro (Annual Report on activities carried out and work programmes 2009), Presentation by the President of the Authority, Rome, 7 July 2009, available at http://www.agcom.it/Default.aspx?message=viewrelazion eannuale&idRelazione=18 (accessed on 15 July 2011) (hereafter, AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2009). 42. AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2009. 43. Tg1, Tg2, and Tg3 are broadcast respectively on public television channels Rai Uno, Rai Due, and Rai Tre. Tg5 and Studio Aperto are the news bulletins respectively of Mediaset’s Canale 5 (Channel 5) and Italia 1.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 27 Th e trend in favor of political news content on television is related to the success of political talk shows. In 2010, primetime programs such as Annozero (on Rai Due) and Ballarò (on Rai Tre) obtained average shares of 21.18 and 16.18 percent respectively, while non-primetime current aﬀ airs programs such as Porta a Porta (on Rai Uno) and Matrix (on Canale 5) obtained 19.8 and 14.1 percent.44

Th e absence of longitudinal data in this respect makes deeper analysis diﬃ cult. In any case, the process of digital switch-over so far has not had any kind of eﬀ ect in terms of gaining or losing audiences for these programs.

1.3.3 Impact of Digital Media on Good-quality News Given that digital switch-over is as yet incomplete, and the legislative framework has privileged the role of incumbents (see sections 5 and 7), it is not surprising that there have not been notable changes in the quality of news provided by conventional media. If anything, digitization may contribute to a decline in news quality as migration of users and advertisers online exacerbates a long-term decline in resources available for professional journalism. Th at said, it would be diﬃ cult to substantiate this empirically and there has in fact been an increase of professional journalists hired by editorial oﬃ ces: 5,709 in 2002 compared to 6,534 in 2009. However, the number of interns—the professional journalists of the future—fell dramatically, from 374 in 2002 to 200 in 2008 (a decrease of 41.2 percent).45

Th e major change in news quality has occurred in online news: 1) the explosion of hundreds of small newsrooms that provide local news; 2) blogs, forums, and other forms of user-generated content (UGC) where readers can discuss and re-frame mainstream media news.

At the same time, however, the proliferation of news outlets online is not increasing the number of actors able to produce investigative news content (see section 4.1.1). Th ese kinds of enterprise necessitate resources beyond the reach of niche new entrants that have surfaced in online news.

1.4 Assessments

Digital platforms have multiplied the ways to access media content. Audience research shows that the migration from one media platform to another has not signiﬁ cantly altered audience choices in terms of content and news sources (the ﬁ ve most viewed news programs and political programs remain the same). Moreover, the gathering of information by end-users still seems linked, independently of the medium selected, to the traditional one-to-many pattern. Although the main news providers increasingly open their content to readers’ comments, interactivity does not appear to be a crucial factor in the choice of one outlet over another.

44. AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010 (Auditel Data) 45. FIEG, La Stampa in Italia 2007–2009.

28 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e overall quality of information provided by those media outlets that maintain their positions as incumbents has not changed. Th is is because, apart from now having to distribute their content across a greater number of platforms and outlets, those who produce them—including specifi cally media fi rms and their practitioners—have not changed. In terms of the news off er as a whole, the rise of online journalism has led to an improvement in the diversity and availability of local news and information.

However, some channels that used to be only available on satellite or pay-TV (such as Rai News and Sky Tg24) are now penetrating increasing numbers of households thanks to the digital platform. Th is does not represent an increase of diversity in terms of content, but rather in terms of audience reach.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 29 2. Digital Media and Public or State-Administered Broadcasters

2.1 Public Service and State Institutions

2.1.1 Overview of Public Service Media; News and Current Affairs Output Th e Italian national public service broadcasting company is Radiotelevisione Italia (RAI), which operates numerous services, including three national terrestrial television channels: Rai Uno, Rai Due, and Rai Tre. Th ese services are regulated, in accordance with statute law, by two-yearly service contracts signed between RAI and the Ministry of Communications. Th e 2010–2012 Service Contract establishes that at least 70 percent of RAI’s annual television programming altogether must consist of content relating to the following categories: information; debates on current aff airs; work and social aff airs; culture, education, and training; tourism and environmental quality; entertainment; sports; children; and promotion of audiovisual media. (Th e fi gures rise to 80 percent for Rai Tre alone.)46 Th e Contract also establishes that public service programs must be aired between 6 a.m. and midnight all year round. Table 9 outlines the percentage of Rai Uno, Rai Due, and Rai Tre’s public service programming in 2010, broken down according to the categories identifi ed in the Public Service Contract.

As for RAI’s radio programming, the 2010–2012 Service Contract establishes that the total annual public service programming of Radio1 and Radio2 altogether should be no less than 70 percent, whereas for Radio3 the minimum requirement is 90 percent. Th e requirements by category for RAI’s three main national radio stations are less broad and there is less emphasis on information.47 However, current aﬀ airs; culture, education and training; and entertainment are given comparatively more weight on radio, as Table 10 shows.

46. See Article 9, Contratto di servizio 2010–2012 (Service Contract 2010–2012), 6 April 2011, available at www.segretariatosociale.rai.it/regola- menti/contratto2010_2012.html (accessed 10 August 2011) (hereafter, Contratto di servizio 2010–2012). 47. See Article 10, Contratto di servizio 2010–2012.

30 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Table 9. RAI television programming by genre in 2010 (% net hours)*

Genre Daily between 6 a.m. and 12 midnight Rai1 Rai2 Rai3 Total average for all channels

Information 15.55 13.19 14.92 14.55

Debates on current affairs 5.99 8.26 18.87 11.12

Work and social affairs 15.83 6.79 10.35 10.96

Culture, education, and training 2.74 2.15 16.52 7.22

Tourism and environmental quality 2.29 1.98 0.72 1.65

Entertainment 1.67 1.06 1.70 1.48

Sports 3.55 7.70 6.92 6.08

Children 0.49 19.04 8.00 9.23

Audiovisual promotion 11.87 7.18 13.93 11.01

Total public service 59.99 77.36 91.92 73.29

Other genres 40.01 32.64 8.08 26.71

Total scheduling 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 Note: * Excluding advertising, telesales, RAI’s self-promotional advertising, social advertising, announcements, breaks, titles and credits of programs, and temporary suspensions of programs. Source: AGCOM, Relazione annual 2011.

Table 10. RAI radio programming by genre in 2010 (% net hours)

Genre Daily between 6 a.m. and midnight Radio1 Radio2 Radio3 Total Information 17.65 10.98 4.39 10.93 Debates on current affairs 34.20 4.29 7.54 15.26 Work and social affairs 17.03 11.29 1.55 9.86 Culture, education and training 4.05 5.18 32.78 14.23 Public Interest Communication 6.22 3.51 1.71 3.79 Entertainment and Music 13.13 45.19 48.32 35.69 Social service/religion 5.65 1.19 0.89 2.56 Total public service 97.93 81.63 97.19 92.32 Other genres 2.07 18.37 2.81 7.86 Total scheduling 100.00 100.00 100.00 100 Source: AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2011.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 31 2.1.2 Digitization and Services Until the introduction of digital content into the Italian media system, the scope of RAI’s oﬀ er was largely limited to its three analog television channels, three satellite television channels, and three national radio stations. Digitization both altered and multiplied these services.48 Additional services now provided digitally include: 14 digital television channels Rai.it and Rai.tv websites (where it is possible to access most of RAI’s television output on demand) 21 on-demand channels a dedicated site for user-generated content (Ugc.rai.it) additional channels for IPTV (Alice and Fastweb) and mobile TV (DVB–H and UMTS for the enterprise 3) a presence on social networking sites, including YouTube, Facebook, Friendfeed, and Flickr a podcast service for several radio programs.49

2.1.3 Government Support State-level support for digital switch-over has not been speciﬁ cally addressed to enhance public service broadcasting but rather to protect both major television incumbents: RAI and Mediaset.50 For instance, since 2001 the law has stipulated that until switch-over is completed, only incumbent operators already broadcasting are qualiﬁ ed to engage in experimental digital terrestrial transmission and trading for frequencies. New entrants have thus always faced considerable barriers. On 19 July 2006, the European Commission initiated an infringement procedure against Italy after RAI, Mediaset, and Telecom Italia received their “digital multiplexes” (MUXs), i.e. bouquets of digital frequencies, for free. Th e fact that other operators had to pay and compete for the digital dividend was deemed to be in breach of EU competition law.

In July 2009, however, the European Commission suspended the infringement procedure, following the adoption by AGCOM of a plan establishing new criteria for the assignment of digital frequencies.51 According to this plan, RAI, Mediaset, and Telecom Italia each have to give up one of their current MUX. A total of fi ve MUXs—including the three released by RAI, Mediaset, and Telecom Italia—will be auctioned in a “beauty contest” before the analog switch-off deadline of 31 December 2012. Th ree of these MUXs will be reserved to new operators, but the remaining two will be up for purchase by incumbent operators, including RAI, Mediaset, and Telecom Italia.52 As a result, it is expected that RAI and/or Mediaset will “buy back” the MUXs that they had to give up in the fi rst place.

48. During the Winter of 2010, RAI ran an advertising campaign with the slogan “Th e highest oﬀ er in Europe”. Th ough not empirically substanti- ated, it indicates RAI’s aspirations and style of self-presentation. 49. Data provided by RAI and reported in AGCOM (2010) establish that during 2009, RAI’s online outlets published 95,000 audiovisual content clips and 30,000 audio-only clips. It also established 13 new online channels and produced 8,782 podcasts. 50. See section 7. 51. AGCOM Decision No. 181/09 of 7 April 2009. 52. Th e ﬁ ve MUXs will be in Digital Video Broadcasting–Terrestrial (DVB–T) technique. A sixth MUX will be released in Digital Video Broadcast- ing–Handheld (DVB–H) technique, i.e. for mobile television, or will be adjusted to the second-generation digital terrestrial television broadcasting system (DVB–T2) and will be auctioned in the same beauty contest (see the contest’s rules at www.sviluppoeconomico.gov.it/images/stories/ Bandi/Disciplinare2011_Errata_corrige.pdf).

32 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 2.1.4 Public Service Media and Digital Switch-over Th e data provided by Auditel—the most authoritative fi rm which analyses television audience dynamics— states that across all its services, RAI has lost a small part of its audience share in quantitative terms since 2005. Although the overall RAI television off er has increased under digitization both in number of outlets and diversity within content (exemplifi ed by the new thematic channels), new audiences have not off set the declining audiences for the three main terrestrial channels.

Any assessment of post-digitization audience share must, however, also take account of qualitative factors. New services provided—particularly on the web—involve their audiences in a more active and independent way. New technologies help audiences to build their own media diet. Audiences can now watch their preferred television news or current aﬀ airs programs at a time of their choosing. Th is kind of service can potentially expand the reach of public service broadcasting.

2.2 Public Service Provision

2.2.1 Perception of Public Service Media Th e two-year Service Contracts between RAI and the Ministry of Communications provide that RAI must fund and publish annual surveys of public opinion on its “corporate reputation” and on the quality of its output in terms of public service.53 RAI’s Scientiﬁ c Committee elaborates Guidelines on methodologies and indicators, assigns the task of conducting the survey to an independent research institute, and assesses the results, which are presented to the parliamentary committee competent on RAI for its evaluation.

At present, RAI adopts the following fi ve indicators on public service requirements: the presence of specialized networks and channels (e.g. Rai News), the broadcasting platforms (e.g. satellite channels, digital terrestrial channels), the presence of program categories outlined in the Service Contract, the off er of web streaming, and the presence of programs accessible to diff erently abled viewers.

On the face of it, RAI complies with all these indicators. Since 18 May 2010, the number of RAI channels on terrestrial digital television, at national level, has risen to 12.54 As mentioned above, this bouquet includes one channel entirely devoted to information, two to sports, one to history, and two to children. As regards broadcasting platforms, RAI distributes content on all television platforms, the radio and the web, and it has a portal streaming all its channels as well as oﬀ ering a “catch-up” service.

In the most recent survey,55 the categories of political information and current aﬀ airs received an average rating of 7.8 and 7.6 (out of 10) respectively for their importance as public services (placing them ﬁ rst and

53. See, for example, Article 3 of Contratto di servizio 2010–2012. 54. See Il Sole 24 Ore, 1 May 2010, p. 28. In addition to its three terrestrial channels, RAI’s digital television oﬀ ers are: Rai 4, Rai 5 (which will begin broadcasting in autumn 2010 in place of Rai Extra), Rai Movie, Rai News, Rai Sport1, Rai Sport2, Rai Gulp, Rai Yoyo, and Rai Storia. 55. RAI, La Corporate Reputation di Rai (RAI’s Corporate Reputation), June 2010, available at http://www.rai.it/dl/docs//%5B1278493904408% 5DCORPORATE%20REPUTATION%20RAI%20giugno%202010%20(Parte%201%20di%202).pdf (accessed 3 September 2010) (hereafter, RAI, Corporate Reputation).

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 33 third among all categories). However, RAI’s off er scored 6.7 for political information, indicating that its performance did not meet public expectations. Indeed, the fi gure was only just over the minimum designated “suffi ciency” level of 6.6, while local information was rated as inadequate (6.2). RAI’s overall capacity to perform a public service was rated at 6.9 in 2010, down from 7.2 in 2009. Th e main criticisms concerned information, which was judged as not objective or impartial, and faulted for its failure to respect pluralism. However, the research into corporate reputation found that Rai News, the information-only channel, was rated as the best channel, and the one which best performed a public service (together with Rai Storia).56

Further valuable insight into how the public views RAI comes from its Corporate Reputation survey that evaluates “RAI as a business”. Th e data is compiled from nine diff erent indicators, one of them being independence from politics. In the 2010 survey, the value obtained for this indicator was the lowest of all categories at 4.5, a fi nding that speaks for itself.57 It is perhaps not surprising, then, that RAI’s license fee income suff ers from widespread evasion and several popular initiatives are campaigning for its abolition.58

With regard to journalists, there are no surveys available which document their opinions on RAI. Our research, based on in-depth interviews with journalists in online newsrooms (none of them at RAI) lead to the conclusion that a lack of impartiality, excessive proximity to politics, and the pursuit of larger audiences are the chief symptoms of a slackening, if not an outright decline, in RAI’s role as a public service provider. One of the most common evaluations was that—given technological innovation and the global comparisons that are now inevitable—comparison between RAI and other public service broadcasters is unavoidable (most obviously, with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)). Such comparisons do not favour RAI, in terms of its services and their quality.

Analysing politicians’ perception of public service provision by the media is a tangled and age-old issue. In this case it is necessary to go beyond the concept of how politicians “regard” public media to the concept of how politicians “use” and “infl uence” public media and specifi cally RAI. Th e distribution of infl uence over public broadcasting is synthesized in the appointment procedure of RAI’s Board of Governors and the Director General, which is based on the standard practice known as lottizzazione (“partitioning”), where the major political parties of the government and the opposition “divide the spoils” of infl uence over television channel programming. Th is system has consolidated since the 1990s, when the television sector became split between two main broadcasters: on the one hand, RAI, and on the other, the private sector represented by Mediaset. Th e latter is wholly owned by media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, who is also Italy’s longest- serving post-war prime minister, currently serving his third term (1994–1995, 2001–2006, and 2008–). Th e blatant confl ict of interest characterizing the position of Berlusconi has certainly no equal in other European democracies, but is not the cause of the lottizzazione system, which has always aff ected RAI (see section 2.2.1). Th e enlargement of the overall RAI off er helps to increase and share the political parties’ grip and infl uence over public service broadcasting. Th e fact that the system continues unchallenged proves that Italy’s

56. RAI, Corporate Reputation. 57. RAI, Corporate Reputation. 58. Research conducted by KRLS Network of Business Ethics for Associazione Contribuenti Italiani.

34 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY political establishment is still not ready to allow public service broadcasting to operate independently. As this system is deeply embedded in the general public’s perception of the domestic media, and in the normal practices that the political system implements when dealing with the media, it is hard to suppose that Italian media will be given, or take the chance to gain, more independence in the near future.59

2.2.2 Public Service Provision in Commercial Media In 1990, the fi rst law governing the structure and ownership of Italy’s media system—the so-called Mammì Law60—established generally that both public and private media are obliged to uphold the fundamental principles of broadcasting (i.e. pluralism; objectivity; completeness and fairness of information; openness to diff erent opinions; openness to political, social, cultural, and religious views; safeguarding ethnic diversity and artistic/cultural/environmental heritage; respect of personal dignity; and protection of minors),61 and imposed a commitment on national commercial broadcasters to air a daily news bulletin. Th is was the fi rst public service obligation on commercial media. However, no remedies are provided for violations of these principles and obligations.62

A further obligation was introduced in 2000, with the so-called Par Condicio Law, which stipulated that in every election campaign both RAI and commercial television must give balanced and proportionate airtime to all political parties.63

Th e so-called Gasparri Law, passed in 2004, reiterates the general principles included in the Mammì Law: the obligation for all media outlets to provide information via daily news bulletins, as well as to guarantee proportionate access to all political parties during electoral campaigns.64 However, the Gasparri Law does not address any speciﬁ c issues regarding the public service obligations of the commercial channels (analog or digital).

AGCOM has the institutional mandate to supervise the implementation of the above public service obligations by commercial media. However, its powers to intervene and deter the violation of such provisions are limited, and consist mainly of imposing fi nes on the liable private entities.65 Furthermore, although AGCOM has found many serious violations by commercial broadcasters in these fi elds, in practice it has always imposed low fi nes, which in turn have failed to deter further violations of the same type and level.66

59. D.C. Hallin and P. Mancini, Comparing Media Systems. 60. Law No. 223 of 6 August 1990. 61. Article 1, par. 1, Law No. 223 of 6 August 1990. 62. See G. Mazzoleni and G. Vigevani, “Italy”; and A. Pace, “Verso la fi ne del servizio pubblico radiotelevisivo?” (Towards the End of Public Service Broadcasting?), in M. Manetti (ed.), Europa e informazione (Europe and Information), Napoli, 2004. 63. Law on dispositions for equal access to the means of communication during the electoral and referenda campaigns and on political communication, no. 28 of 22 February 2000, Gazzetta Uffi ciale no. 43 of 22 February 2000 (Par Condicio Law) (hereafter, Law No. 28 of 22 February 2000). 64. Articles 1, 3, and 5, par. 2, b) and c), Law on Regulations and Principles Governing the Set-up of the Broadcasting System and the RAI-Radio- televisione italiana S.p.A., as well as Authorizing the Government to Issue a Consolidated Broadcasting Act, no. 112 of 3 May 2004, Gazzetta Uffi ciale, no. 104 of 5 May 2004 (Gasparri Law) (hereafter, Law No. 112/2004). 65. Article 51, Consolidated Broadcasting Act no.177 of 31 July 2005. 66. Th e level of fi nes imposed by AGCOM ranges between €5,000 and €50,000 approximately.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 35 2.3 Assessments

RAI is in the midst of an evolution. Th e change concerns the positive proliferation of content with the result that public broadcasting services are now delivered across analog, digital, satellite, and web platforms. As well as disseminating its content on several platforms, RAI has shown itself to be adaptable and innovative in the new digital landscape, creating new outlets ad hoc.

However, while RAI is still competitive on traditional analog channels, it is struggling to match its traditional market share on new platforms. In particular, its online news audience is eclipsed by those of the highest- selling good-quality newspapers (La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera). Despite the increase in supply, migration to other platforms has turned into a loss for RAI (between 2003 and 2009) of 5.4 percentage audience share points.67 Moreover, closer examination of the data for users who also have access to satellite television confi rms that RAI lags markedly behind Sky Italia.68 On the positive side, in regions where the switch-over to digital has been completed, RAI’s audience seems to have transferred to the new digital channels (particularly Rai 4 and Rai News), although not suffi ciently to off set the overall decline in audience share.69

To understand whether public service provisions have become more or less prominent in recent years—as a result of digitization—it is crucial to evaluate the infl uence of politicians and political parties on the entire RAI network. Th us the ongoing changes that aff ect public service media should be seen in the context of the functions that RAI has performed since the 1990s, if not earlier, and of its role within the political system.70 Only against this background can the grip of parliamentary power and the government’s increasing infl uence over the public service media be properly understood.

Th e best-known recent analysis of the Italian media system aligned it with a “Mediterranean model”, characterised by a high degree of pluralism (as noted in respect of newspapers), strong ﬁ nancial and ideological links between media and political groups (sometimes called “political parallelism”),71 externally oriented journalism, and a governmental or parliamentary model of broadcasting governance.72 Against this backdrop, a cursory glance at the system today suggests there has been little change: there is scant independence from political parties, and a lack of objectivity in information provision, all of which have been constant features of RAI’s output for decades (see section 7.3).

67. AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010. 68. AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010. 69. Calculations by MediaItalia (2010) on Auditel data. 70. For a historical perspective, see A. Grasso, Storia della televisione italiana (Th e History of Italian Television), Garzanti, Milan, 2004; and F. Mon- teleone, Storia della radio e della televisione in Italia. Costume, società e politica (Th e History of Radio and Television in Italy: Costume, Society, and Politics), Marsilio, Venice, 2005; for a sociological perspective, see E. Menduni, Televisione e società italiana. 1975–2000 (Italian Television and Society. 1975–2000), Bompiani, Milan, 2002; and, for an economic one, M. Gambaro, “Consolidamento dell’industria televisiva, politiche pubbliche e percorsi di crescita” (Consolidation in Italian Television, Public Policies, and Paths of Growth), Industria, 1, January–March 2002, pp. 127–143; for a political and system-based approach, P. Ortoleva, “Il declino industriale del sistema dei media italiano” (Th e Industrial De- cline of the Italian Media System), in Problemi dell’informazione, September 2005 (3), pp. 265–280, and G. Mazzoleni and G. Vigevani, “Italy”. 71. For example, all newspapers receive state subsidies in line with their political preferences. (See B. Lopez, La casta dei giornali, Viterbo: Stampa Alternativa/Nuovi Equilibri, 2007.) Th is situation is scarcely discussed in public (maybe because the mainstream media are reluctant to oﬀ er themselves up as targets for criticism). It is revealing that this book was hardly reviewed in the media. Not even the social media have grasped the critical message. In Italy, public subsidies are a feature of the media landscape that is taken for granted. 72. D.C. Hallin and P. Mancini, Comparing Media Systems.

36 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 3. Digital Media and Society

3.1 User-Generated Content (UGC)

3.1.1 UGC Overview Internet use in Italy has been marked by an increase in the use of blogs and by consistent growth of the most popular social networking websites (in particular, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter). Since the early 2000s, the Italian blogosphere has been characterized by its close attention to the world of information; indeed, analysts have defi ned it as an extension of the latter.73 Th e blogosphere, however, should not be considered a source of news, because as bloggers routinely update their blogs, they do not usually look for original news items. Instead, they reframe and comment upon news in the mainstream media agenda. Of course, there is no lack of episodes, even sensational ones, of news stories which have originated in the blogosphere and then been spread by the mainstream media. Th e fi rst and most striking example was in 2006, when Gianluca Neri, who still maintains one of the most popular Italian blogs (Macchianera), on analyzing an offi cial American government document concerning the death of Nicola Calipari74—which was published online as a PDF but with some parts redacted—used a simple copy-and-paste procedure to make the deleted parts legible. Th e dossier without deletions was fi rst circulated online and then, in the days that followed, appeared on the front pages of newspapers and in newscast headlines.75 However, the main activity of the Italian blogosphere consists of discussing, commenting on, and critically reviewing the contents produced by the mainstream media.76

Th e blog sites with the largest numbers of users are those maintained by newspaper publishing companies along with paper-based counterparts (e.g. La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera). In Italy, both citizen blogs—i.e. blogs written by members of the public, professionals, information experts—and especially

73. A. Conti, L’informazione su Internet: inizia l’era della concretezza (Information on the Internet: the Era of Concreteness Begins), European Jour- nalism Observatory, Lugano, 2006, available at http://it.ejo.ch/?p=169; D. Leonardi, Self-regulation and the Print Media: Codes and Analysis of Codes in use by Press Councils in Countries of the EU, 2004; and A. Sofi , “Un nuovo giornalismo s’intreccia nella rete: l’informazione nell’era dei blog,” in C. Sorrentino, Il Campo giornalistico. I nuovi orizzonti dell’informazione (Th e Journalistic Field. Th e New Horizons of Information), Carocci, Rome, 2006 (hereafter, A. Sofi , “Un nuovo giornalismo s’intreccia nella rete”). 74. Nicola Calipari was an Italian secret agent in Iraq. During an operation to save an Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, he was killed at an Ameri- can road block. 75. See A. Sofi , “Un Nuovo Giornalismo s’Intreccia Nella Rete,” p. 151. 76. C.-J. Bertrand, An Arsenal for Democracy: Media Accountability Systems, Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ, 2003.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 37 journalist blogs—maintained by professional journalists outside their companies—have to do with control of the press, its criticism, and analysis. Belonging in the former category are blogs such as Pazzo per Repubblica (Mad about Repubblica), which analyzes the work of one of the most important newspapers on the Italian market; belonging in the latter are, for example, Piovono Rane, Manteblog, Wittgenstein, and Beppe Grillo (see section 3.2.1), all blogs devoted to the critical analysis of information.

As shown in Table 11, the 10 most popular websites in Italy include four UGC websites—Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Blogger.com, a free weblog publishing tool run by Google. Th e other most visited websites are mainly web search engines. Only two newspapers’ online editions have a top 10 rank: La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera.

Table 11. Top 10 most visited websites in Italy77

Rank Website

1 Google.it

2 Facebook

3 Google.com

4 YouTube

5 Yahoo.com

6 Wikipedia

7 Blogger.com

8 La Repubblica

9 Libero.it

10 Il Corriere della Sera Source: Alexa, 2011.

3.1.2 Social Networks Around 15 million Italians are members of Facebook, while almost 12 million have a Twitter account. Data provided by Alexa show how Facebook occupies second place in the general classiﬁ cation of the most visited websites, and YouTube comes ﬁ rst. Th is is corroborated by Censis data as shown in the tables below.

77. Data obtained from web information company Alexa, available at www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/IT (accessed on 31 July 2011) Th e sites are ordered by their one-month Alexa traﬃ c rank. Th e one-month rank is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors and page views over the past month.

38 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Table 12. Distribution of social networks among the Italian population

% use in the population78

YouTube 30.9

Facebook 25.9

MSN Messenger 24.7

Skype 12.4

MySpace 5.4

Icq 0.7

Flickr 0.7

Twitter 0.2

LinkedIn 0.5 Source: Censis, 2009.

Table 13. Data on Italian users and usage of Facebook*

Active users worldwide 400 million

Minutes per month spent on Facebook 500 million

Average time spent on Facebook worldwide 56 minutes per day

Groups and events 160 million

Users connected via mobiles 100 million

Active users in Italy 16 million

Average time spent on Facebook in Italy 80 minutes per day Note: * Including users who spent zero minutes on a particular day Source: La Repubblica, Aﬀ ari e Finanza section, 10 May 2010.

3.1.3 News in Social Media As Juan Diego Oliva—Facebook’s regional director for Italy—has stressed: “Facebook, with its more than 400 million users, is much more than a social network, for many of its members it is the web, an integrated communication system in which you do almost everything.”79 Research for this report bears out this evaluation with reference to news stories. When our interviewees, regardless of whether they were journalists, bloggers, or web managers, were asked to comment on statistics relevant to their websites and domains, they emphasized that a good proportion of the website’s visitors came to an article via social networks.

78. Th e percentages for social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube grow respectively to 90.3 percent and 89.2 percent for young people aged 14–29 (Censis, 2009). 79. Ernesto Assante, La Repubblica, Aﬀ ari e Finanza section, 10 May 2010, p. 33.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 39 In short, while readers who used search engines occupied ﬁ rst place, and in second place came those who trusted the newspaper and therefore accessed the site directly, there was a third group of visitors who found the link to a particular article on a social network website—especially Facebook—and then went to the relevant page to read it. Th e data provided by Alexa in fact show that 18.75 percent of the users of Repubblica. it consulted Facebook before accessing the site, 11.05 percent in the case of Corriere.it, 12.95 percent for Gazzetta.it, and 6.51 percent for IlSole24Ore.com. Th ese data show that Facebook and other social networks can be, and sometimes are, used as a search engine for news. Th e data provided by Censis (2009) present a less impressive picture, but they nevertheless show a trend toward the use of social networks to obtain information: 3.5 percent of Facebook’s members used it “to spread information and to exchange opinions”.80

3.2 Digital Activism

3.2.1 Digital Platforms and Civil Society Activism In recent years, Italy has seen the advent of movements originating from the internet, or which have received their impetus from it. Th ere are several cases,81 but the best-known concerns a television comedian, Beppe Grillo, who left center stage in the mainstream media to re-enter through a counter-information blog. Th e “Grillo phenomenon” has attracted increasing attention within the fi eld of political communication. Th e core of Grillo’s movement is the blog that the comedian, with his assistants, has updated every day since 26 January 2005.82 It is certain, however, that these blog-engendered initiatives extend beyond the confi nes of life online. Th ey create a media–political circuit whereby the issues raised by the website, and the frames in which they are couched, on the one hand enter the mainstream media, and on the other give rise to street protests, exemplifi ed by the demonstrations on 9 September 2007 at Piazza Maggiore in Bologna and on 25 April 2008 in Turin, both transmitted on giant screens in other Italian cities (see “V-Day” event description in box below).

One of the most surprising and at the same time invisible (to the mainstream media) forms of mobilization was a reaction to the so-called gagging law, which the government threatened to introduce in spring 2010.83 In a couple of days the majority of blogs concerned with information issues, as well as websites linked to civil society activism more generally, published a joint declaration against the proposed law, and several Facebook

80. Censis, Ottavo rapporto sulla comunicazione. Th e comparison is purely statistical, but from a numerical point of view it signiﬁ es almost 560,000 users, more than the purchasers of the most widely circulated newspaper in Italy. 81. Th e most recent movements are those of the so-called Popolo viola which culminated in a large street demonstration in Rome on 5 December 2009, and Valigia blu, which has mobilized for various causes, including freedom of information. 82. Th e blog and the various publishing initiatives that it promotes—from the distribution of DVDs of Grillo’s shows to the book, Schiavi moderni (Modern Slaves), a collection of emails sent to the blog on the issue of precarious employment—are published by Casaleggio Associati of Milan, founded in 2004 with the aim of “developing a net culture in Italy”. Interestingly, the blog of a former judge and former minister, Antonio Di Pietro, is maintained by the same publishing house. 83. Th e so-called legge bavaglio (gagging law) proposed by the Government was meant to prevent media from publishing the minutes of phone tapping collected by prosecutors, although they are publicly accessible when used in trials. Th e draft of this law is currently deadlocked in Parlia- ment, having provoked a strong reaction from the opposition, part of public opinion, and the President of the Republic.

40 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY groups raised support from several thousands of fans and friends. Th is very active and impressive movement inside the web did not get any kind of coverage by mainstream television (although several newspapers did cover it).

Th is set of relations and events generated by blogs is complex, and diffi cult to defi ne and analyze. Beppe Grillo’s blog has gained ever-growing numbers of followers since its launch in 2005. Th e mix between the blog and the shows put on by the comedian in theaters around Italy (and the DVDs then sold in bookshops) has augmented both these arenas of representation: the online one of the virtual streets created by the blog, and the offl ine one of the invariably over-fl owing theaters where Grillo stages his shows. However, the event which has led to Grillo’s “consecration” by the media, and which brought his blog’s contents, themes, and words into the national media spotlight, was the September 2007 demonstration in Bologna, known as V-Day.

V-Day Beppe Grillo launched the “Vaffanculo Day” (“F**k Off Day”), or “V-Day” for short, on his blog on 14 June 2007. This event was promoted as an initiative aimed at protesting corruption in Italian politics. The event was deﬁ ned as a combination of D-Day (i.e. the Normandy landings) and the spirit of Vendetta (hence the vigilante V imported from the movie V for Vendetta). The event was largely popularized online, while traditional mass media ignored it almost totally. The event took place on 8 September 2010, when crowds took to the streets of Bologna and 200 other towns. During the rally, Grillo called out the names of more than 20 Italian politicians who had been convicted of crimes ranging from corruption to tax evasion to inciting murder. He also asked participants to sign a petition in favor of a Popular Initiative Act that would allow Italian politicians with criminal convictions to be expelled from Parliament.84

Th e street participation enacted by the V-Day, prompted the mainstream media to investigate and analyze the “Grillo phenomenon”, which hitherto had seemed conﬁ ned to the web, seeking to deﬁ ne it, quantify it (especially in electoral terms), and understand it.

Th e blog from which this protest movement sprang has a dialectical and critical relationship with information and its protagonists. One of the blog’s most frequent practices is to select news stories from the web (and elsewhere) to include in its daily post. Th is is a communication strategy which performs a twofold function. It serves on the one hand to highlight news and events excluded by the mainstream media (or at least as alleged by the blog); and on the other hand to reframe news items which have appeared in the mainstream media, thereby activating practices of media criticism. In this way, the blog infl uences users of a certain kind (those who, as we have seen, rely on the web, watch little television, and use the blog’s website as the homepage for their browsers). For these users, it controls the fl ow of information, defi nes an agenda of issues, and imposes a frame.

84. A. Pepe and C. di Gennaro, “Political protest Italian-style: Th e dissonance between the blogosphere and the mainstream media in the promotion and coverage of Beppe Grillo’s V-Day,” First Monday, Volume 14, Number 12, 7 December 2009, available at http://www.uic.edu/htbin/ cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2740/2406.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 41 3.2.2 The Importance of Digital Mobilizations Th e case of Grillo is deﬁ nitely the most impressive and the only one which has generated widespread popular interest and attention. At the same time, the impermeability of the mainstream media to news from outside the political parties’ agenda leads civil society movements to focus on the web as a principle means of outreach and organization. Examples include: the Valigia Blu movement (http://www.valigiablu.it), which is concerned with press freedom and has organized protests against the so-called gagging law, and against political party interference with RAI; Popolo Viola (http://www.ilpopoloviola.it), an online campaign calling for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign, which reportedly gained 280,000 signatories within a month, and led to a demonstration in Rome on 5 December 2009, named “No Berlusconi Day”;85 the young anti-maﬁ a movement launched in 2005, Ammazzateci tutti (“Kill us all”) (http://www. ammazzatecitutti.org); the Facebook-based movement Move On Italia (http://www.facebook.com/groups/moveonitalia), which campaigns to promote the use of instruments of direct democracy such as referenda, primaries for the choice of political candidates, draft laws by popular initiative, and petitions.

Initiatives of this kind are numerous. However, as stated, they rarely reach the mainstream media and often involve small numbers of people. Th eir websites are structured to explain and organize the initiatives, as well as to involve more people as participants. Political elites, especially from the opposition, follow with interest the development of these initiatives, although they are still far from being directly inﬂ uenced by their activities.

3.3 Assessments

Given the current pace of change, it would be premature as well as very diffi cult to quantify digital activism and its eff ects. Th e examples cited, of which Beppe Grillo’s blog is the most striking one, suggest that while smaller groups can use the web to organize and mobilize, so far only those examples of online activism that were given widespread visibility by the mainstream media achieved signifi cant results. For instance, the 2009 “No Berlusconi Day” campaign, which is so often presented as an online-centered initiative, gained the support of important publishing groups—such as La Repubblica/L’Espresso—and was shown and discussed extensively on several television political talk shows.

It is certain, however, that the 39.3 percent of Italians who make daily use of the web have access to a set of interpretations, suggestions, and opinions in regard to an agenda of issues unthinkable a decade ago. At the

85. B. Parrella, “Italy: Online activism ﬁ res up ‘No Berlusconi Day’,” Global Voices, 17 November 2009, available at http://globalvoicesonline. org/2009/11/17/italy-online-activism-ﬁ res-up-no-berlusconi-day (accessed 27 January 2011).

42 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY same time, the attention paid by bloggers and on social networks to issues which do not pass through the gateways of the country’s traditional media, but are instead addressed by other broadcasters, increases the diversity of the overall news oﬀ er.

Moreover, the internet makes it possible to organize participation, and at diﬀ erent levels (from street protests to the collection of signatures for petitions). In this respect, both Grillo and Popolo Viola were instrumental in bringing about the demonstrations of 5 December 2009.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 43 4. Digital Media and Journalism

4.1 Impact on Journalists and Newsrooms

4.1.1 Journalists Online newsrooms (both with and without paper-based counterparts) are the best places to investigate changes in the production routines of journalists.86

Th e greatest change in the past two years has stemmed from the introduction and diﬀ usion of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Th e future often envisaged by the interviewees for this report was one of convergence, leading to the central management of all editorial products: from videos to photographs, from articles for the newspaper’s online edition to ones for the paper-based version. Th e majority of newsrooms in Italy are still some way oﬀ from this level of integration.

Changes are often hampered by legislation and policies that delineate boundaries between journalists working for online editions and those working for paper-based ones. But it is widely believed in the sector that the near future will see integration (as has happened elsewhere, for instance at the New York Times or the Telegraph newspapers in London). In Italy, there are still newsrooms producing online editions which operate as independent organs of information and use—when possible—the assistance of other parts of the group to which they belong.87 Research has observed diﬀ erent degrees of interaction and reciprocity among the parts of the same group, often motivated by the eﬀ orts invested by the publisher, both economically and symbolically, in the production of digital content to be distributed mainly through the online edition. As one media journalist put it:

86. Between January and June 2010, 25 professionals working in online journalism were interviewed for this report. Th ese included 10 journalists in an online newsroom at a media company which also produced a corresponding paper-based newspaper; fi ve journalists in newsrooms that produced only online content; fi ve bloggers; and fi ve managers with responsibility for publishing company websites. To ensure anonymity, the interviewees are identifi ed with the following acronyms: MJ (media journalist) for journalists who worked in newsrooms that did not produce solely online content; OJ (online journalist) for those who instead worked in only online newsrooms; and WM for web managers. Th e infor- mants are distinguished by numbers. 87. As one of our interviewees, editor-in-chief in an important online newsroom with a paper-based counterpart, put it ironically: “We are almost an independent republic” (MJ 4).

44 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY We don’t usually give them exclusive news stories … when I go to the editorial meeting in the morning, or the one for the front page at half past six, I know what’s in the newspaper. If there’s anything exclusive I try not to give it to them, as long as it’s not reported by the agencies. And then so as not to get shafted I give them the news story. But I don’t usually give them exclusive stories in the paper edition, nor do I announce them; otherwise I’ll spoil the scoop. When we can contribute to news in the public domain thanks to the help of a colleague on the paper edition, we do so. If they kill an Italian soldier in Afghanistan and I’ve got a correspondent, I call him and get him to make an audio report for the online edition. Th ere are then colleagues who produce for the paper-based edition and do particular things for the online one, because the paper perhaps doesn’t have enough space (MJ 3).

Th e routines and organizational practices involved in producing online content have already been repeatedly investigated by academic research, including in Italy.88 We draw on the results of this research to emphasize ﬁ ve aspects of the production of digital information content which diﬀ erentiate between online and traditional, especially paper-based journalism: 1) the absence of deadlines89 2) the importance of time rather than space 3) a succinct writing style 4) simultaneous cross-media work 5) reader feedback as a production practice.90

Th e absence of deadlines. Th e pace of work required to produce a paper-based newspaper has always been set by a deadline: the moment when the newspaper is “put to bed” and sent for printing. Obviously, this feature represents the principal diff erence with respect to online journalism, which must instead produce the fl ow of news in real time. In short, when an event is known, verifi ed, and deemed editorially sensitive, it must be published immediately.

Th e contents of the website are my responsibility, and this holds from morning till evening, and sometimes also at night. My working day is that of a journalistic organization which works in real time. So it’s structured in the morning and fi nishes in the evening. I’d say that there is no great diff erence in our work during the day, we’re constantly handling news stories. It might be said there’s perhaps closer attention on our part at certain times of the day, but it’s not so, because even at certain times when there’s less traffi c on the site there is

88. C. Sorrentino, Il Campo giornalistico. I nuovi orizzonti dell’informazione (Th e Journalistic Field. Th e New Horizons of Information), Carocci, Rome, 2006. 89. As Dr. Alessio Cornia of the University of Perugia suggested during a conference on these themes, this “absence of deadlines” could be at the same time considered as a “continuous deadline” due to the fact that journalists into web newsrooms have to update hour-by-hour, minute-by- minute, the content of the websites for which they work (SISP Conference, Venice, 16–18 September 2010). 90. Although these practices are presented as distinct, they obviously overlap and complement each other. Reader feedback will be discussed below.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 45 still a great deal of it, lots of visitors. So the level of seriousness and professionalism must be always the same (MJ 1).

I’m lucky enough to have an iPhone, and its ease of use has opened up a new world for me. It often happens that I see something in the morning while I’m having breakfast and I immediately signal it. While I’m drinking coﬀ ee and reading a press review, if I see something that strikes me, I send an email in real time or put it on Twitter. I like to try things out, there are so many opportunities for communication, to make the product grow in terms of the quality of the relationship with the reader (MJ 5).

Th is absence of a deadline compressing production times was often associated by our interviewees with the production routines typical of a press agency. Indeed, the descriptions of their jobs provided by journalists with previous experience of agency work seemingly showed that they were more prepared for the change in the mode of production. Th e negative counterpart of this sequence of practices was that the shortage of time also entailed greater reliance on sources. Online newsrooms essentially work on press agency reports and institutional sources because they have insuffi cient time for verifi cation and investigation. However, as we shall discuss further below, this logic is off set by two important factors which enhance the production style. A news story does not “die” once it has been published; rather, it can be constantly updated and enriched with multimedia content (photographs, video clips, audio clips, etc.). At the same time, an online news story often elicits an array of comments from readers which make it more dynamic than ones in the traditional media.

What’s diﬀ erent is essentially that you mustn’t limit yourself to the news story as such, you have to exploit all the web’s potentialities to extend it and enrich it with video and audio content, or original documents which you can attach … But this is normal for me because I started at press agencies. Th e fact is that you can change things, nothing is deﬁ nitive (MJ 3).

Th e importance of time rather than space. Th e absence of a deadline, and work that involves constant updating of the product, means that the main parameter used by online journalists to evaluate their work is not space (i.e. the space available in a newspaper, the columns available, hierarchization of items for a newscast, etc.) but time.

[Paper-based and online news journalism] are completely diff erent kinds of work. You start at 10 o’clock and you ask yourself how to begin. Th en, as and when things happen, in the afternoon you restructure the newspaper. Th e work of the chief editor is exactly that: he has a newspaper in front of his eyes and in his mind, with advertising clutter, and as topics and stories come in, you decide how to enrich the newspaper in the chief editor’s head. He rearranges the newspaper’s various sections and at 9 p.m. it’s more or less fi nished ... For us it’s all diff erent, we start with events that are already good and we put them on the site, then the events that happen later are used to enrich or to replace, or to stand alongside them. Our hierarchization is by time. A newspaper’s hierarchization is in terms of spaces, for both news stories that fi nd space in the newspaper and those that don’t, and then the space in

46 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY the newspaper, that is, the news that’ll be given more space as opposed to the news that’ll be given less. Our hierarchization is essentially a hierarchization of times and positions on a homepage which is potentially unlimited but is not because you can’t force people to scroll through 88 news stories to ﬁ nd the one they want (MJ 3).

A succinct writing style. While Italian print journalism has always fore-grounded comment and discussion, digital contents require a change of style to become more succinct, immediate, and rapid.

Th e internet forces you to give news without commentary along political lines, or such like. We give the news plain and simple (MJ 4).91

We do very rapid editing, very fast because we have to cover real time; there’s not a lot of time to discuss things. One of the skills required of online journalists is that they must be able to evaluate news in real time, so there’s little time for analysis, that is, discussion, editorializing. Our core business is the news, working with the news; we cannot and must not discuss and must be highly operational (MJ 1).

Simultaneous cross-media work. Th e counterpart of the brevity and the speed with which the online newsroom must work is that of being able constantly to update and enrich news stories. Th is, however, requires the journalist to acquire a series of skills that previously pertained to other professional activities: the choice of photographs, of video clips, sometimes also the concrete production of videos and photographs— as happened at some of the newsrooms visited during the research. Th e problem is therefore also that of coordinating this new kind of workload. Italian online newsrooms have found diff erent solutions so as to adjust to what is a wholly new part of their work, and it is not yet possible to identify best practices. Th ese solutions vary from one newsroom to the next according to the investments by the publisher. Th e distinction between editorial work more closely related to the news and the work which corroborates and expands it with cross-media digital resources (audio, video, photographic) grows increasingly blurred. Coordination solutions range from the two chief editors at Corriere della Sera, who share the same spaces in the newsroom and decide on the two sides of production, to the so-called Visual Desk created at La Repubblica, which functions as a sort of central offi ce where graphic designers and journalists work together. Th is work becomes—in contrast with the paper-based edition as regards production real and proper—a team endeavor in which diff erent journalists may contribute to the same story.

Th e publication platform is shared and everyone may take part in the publication of a piece. It may happen that someone tells the story, someone else does the photographs, others the video, a fourth person does the links, and then it’s assembled, in those particularly frenetic moments when something important happens. But there’s also the work of integrating the whole structure, its social part for example (MJ 5).

91. Th is is a crucial point about the changes in journalism. However, it is very diﬃ cult to support or challenge this observation with research data.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 47 In addition there is the part of production that is primarily concerned with digital content. Publishing an article online requires particular applications, from identiﬁ cation of tags to description. Before the trade unions intervened to foster the development of this work also for journalists not employed for online editions, a number of newsrooms had agreed on internal rules whereby articles produced for the paper-based edition could easily be used online.

We drew up a supplementary agreement which provided, before this was done at national level, for a certain quantity of articles a week to be written only for the web and, even more importantly, that when writing for the paper edition, consideration should be made, not of rules, but of the advantages if these articles are then put online. I’m thinking about the tags, the metatags, descriptions, etc. Th is for us has been the greatest success in the newsroom, because with a little eﬀ ort the journalist can make a piece more suited to the web (MJ 5).

Th e last crucial question here, which is the most important signal of change in the new digital environment, is the one linked to readers’ comments (see also section 3.1.1).

We can distinguish four types of feedback received by online news journalists from readers. We start with the more quantitative types, and then consider the more qualitative ones.

Every internet site, according to the platform used to create it, obtains a constant ﬂ ow of statistics on its users: for example, the number of visitors, the duration of visits, the most read articles, the referrer sites, etc. Th ese data are constantly monitored by the editorial oﬃ ce (and also by management). Th e structure of the homepage is often reshaped to foreground the most viewed articles, and in some cases the editors are asked to amplify them.

When an article has a lot of readers, we don’t remove it, we keep it or we expand it. Th is is also for banal commercial reasons (MJ 3).

A second level is that of readers’ comments on individual articles. Also for legal reasons, considering that the newspaper is responsible for everything published on the website, every online newspaper must fi lter the comments by readers. While some newsrooms have outsourced this task to external agencies, in others comments are read and fi ltered by the journalists themselves—or someone hired specifi cally for the purpose. Th is practice enables newsrooms to understand the predominant attitude among their readers. Such practices are constantly evolving as the technology advances. In online newsrooms, one of the fi rst tasks to be completed in the morning—especially in newsrooms which have not yet resorted to external services—is to monitor comments in order to understand, select, and publish what the readers have written.

In this routine activity you also have to check all the comments, as if the life of the newspaper extended to include all its readers; and it’s as if there’s this press room open to the readers, and already in the morning we check and read what has been written, we look at it and comment on it (MJ 5).

48 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th is isn’t fi ltering, it’s ex post reading and intervention, eh? Th e community is highly active today. We publish almost 2,000 comments on the site every day, from the extreme right to the extreme left; we delete the vulgar and violent comments, or ones from trolls ... But there’s a classifi cation. Th e strongest contents in terms of thought are mainly on the blogs, if you read them, but this probably applies to all newspapers. Th ere really is a public able to put forward arguments, sometimes very original ones, which journalists fi nd impressive (WM 1).

Th e reading of readers’ comments, however, is not entirely precluded even in newsrooms that use external monitoring services: ﬁ rstly because individual journalists often follow the debates produced by their articles; and secondly because the monitoring service may consult the chief editor on whether or not a particular comment should be moderated. In these cases, although only particular comments come to the journalists’ attention, they are the most sensitive and heterogeneous ones, sometimes at odds with the newspaper’s editorial line.

I’d like to have the time [to read all the comments] but I often ﬁ nd it impossible. I read those that are blocked by the moderators. I read them and then I say, “OK, publish this and don’t publish that.” I tend to publish everything, except messages saying “Berlusconi is a thief”, which is permissible to think, but until it is proved it can’t be said, because although it may be a comment by Joe Bloggs, it goes under our title and the responsibility is ours (MJ 3).

A further level concerns Facebook and, to some extent, Twitter profi les. Th e reference in this case is not only to the profi les of newspapers but also to those of journalists themselves, who often make public use of them to justify and discuss their choices and the news that they produce. Banally, from the publishing point of view, Facebook is a very low-cost investment which gives access to diff erent groups of readers and generates unexpected dynamics for the journalists themselves.

Facebook, as far as we are concerned, is a way to reach readers who otherwise we would never reach, because they’re 20-year-old kids (MJ 5).

I use it [Facebook] as a professional tool. I’m not a big fan, but it’s somewhere you have to be, and so I’m there. Except that, in my opinion, the conversation takes another tone. Usually it’s a type of conversation that has less to do with the news in the strict sense, and more to do with comment on the news, so it’s a diﬀ erent communicative register. Th at said, it’s an important tool (MJ 2).

Some newsrooms have taken a strategic decision to join social networks in order to establish close dialogue with readers. While less space is allocated to readers on the website, which is therefore managed with more traditional journalistic practices, the social networking site is used for discussion with readers.

Th ere’s no comparison between online journalism and the rest; they’re utterly diﬀ erent … Online journalism, and according to the philosophy of the web, is completely unlike

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 49 any other type of journalism, because it’s living journalism, with constant feedback from the readers, with pressures from the readers. You almost immediately understand from the discussions on the social network what things the readers like and what they don’t like, the things that should be followed more closely and those less so, and not just through your readers (OJ 1).

Although quantiﬁ cation is not possible in these cases either, it is nevertheless certain that Web 2.0 makes new sources of information available for the journalists who openly use it, and who engage in online discussion.

Th e last level considered concerned readers as news sources. Much has already been written on this topic. Some case studies, which were cited in our interviews, refer to great events aﬀ ecting the entire world. Th e reference is particularly to natural catastrophes, where the inﬂ ow of eyewitness photographs and videos but also texts has become authoritative sources for journalism as a whole.

Let’s say that there are some places where the readers arrive before we do, tragic events like the tsunami, which is an example that will end up in the books. Th ey were there three days before the newspaper’s correspondent, before the emergency aid workers. Th is is also a social function of technology; technology is not entirely evil, thank God. It’s not all bad; it brings people together, it puts them in contact, but these things don’t even come out (MJ 3).

Th e characteristics of online journalism deprive it—at least in the case of production undertaken by journalists with no form of interaction with the public—of refl exivity and depth, as exemplifi ed by the risk of reliance on sources (although this does not apply solely to online news journalism). Th ese practices are also motivated by ethical issues: mainly the desire to avoid the risk that news stories which are diffi cult or impossible to verify will be drawn from the large amount of information available online. Th is is work which has essentially become deskbound, in that there is insuffi cient time to search for alternative sources or to undertake investigative journalism. At the same time, however, the welcome invariably given to reader feedback reverses this frame by introducing points of view and sources previously excluded by journalistic production into the fl ow of contents.

It is hard to tell if the changes outlined above will persist. At the same time, it is diﬃ cult to grasp what kind of eﬀ ects these changes have on news content, beyond its multimedia and interactive features.

Two major trends may be mentioned. Th e small number of people who work in online newsrooms reduces the chances of balanced and reliable reporting, because the stories received cannot be veriﬁ ed as frequently as they should be.92 In this situation, journalists are employed to:

92. Th is number may increase in the future. Research for this report found that the most important online newsrooms were staff ed by more than 20 journalists (Repubblica.it and Corriere.it). All the others have no more than seven staff . Moreover, online local newspapers—mentioned at the beginning of this report—which represent the most important change in Italian newsrooms, sometimes have no more than one or two newsroom staff .

50 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 1) use oﬃ cial source or cover “predictable” events—e.g. press conferences, planned events; 2) take for granted press agency content (with the consequences of a standardization of content provided by diverse news organs); 3) depend on public relations material.93

At the same time, this kind of journalism is to some extent checked by the Web 2.0-enabled bottom-up participation practices. Th us, in some respects, online journalism perpetuates the relative advantage of oﬃ cial sources associated with traditional news media, while in others it fosters a wider diversity of views through the use of users as news sources, as well as commentators.

Another ﬁ nding in respect of users as sources is at odds with a commonplace belief about online information: that it is possible to ﬁ nd everything on the web but the information is often unreliable. Th e web, and online journalism in general, in fact base their everyday dynamics on a rigid selection of topics, which are then discussed, commented upon, and opened to contributions from readers at all the levels previously discussed. As one of our interviewees emphasized:

In reality there are fewer products that work, there’s a lot of ﬁ ltering. Th ere are loads of articles in a newspaper like Corriere della Sera, but not many appear on the web, there are only a few of them. Because they’re commented on, because it’s interactive, the articles commented on every day are few in number, and we concentrate only on those. Oddly enough, the print medium is much more generalist than the web (OJ 1).

However, while there is a reliance on sources, and while it is true that the majority of those who access the web discuss three or four issues per day, it is equally true that they do so from diﬀ erent points of view, with a diversity not possible with the traditional media and which also inﬂ uences the work of the journalists themselves.

If I post something, if I say something, it travels in spite of me, it travels, if people like it, I see that it’s shared by right and left, and above all there are so many readers of what we write … a person must go to a newspaper kiosk [to buy a newspaper]. Th is is a militant culture, I write for my readers, my readers buy me and they expect to ﬁ nd particular things. It’s a vicious circle, dogmatic and ideological. We write for our own people. On the web you don’t write for your own people, you don’t know most of the people you write for, you write for the people that read you. Perhaps you sometimes write something that you think, and you realize you’re being read by unexpected people who may become regular readers, and with time you realize you’re writing for them as well. Th ere’s a constant feedback between me and readers which somehow changes me, and it also changes the readers themselves. Because you

93. See M. Tortora, “Can the Internet Save the News in Italy? Possible Strategies for News Agencies,” in O. Boyd-Barrett (ed.), News Agencies in the Turbulent Era of the Internet, Government of Catalonia, 2010; and M. Mazzoni, Le relazioni pubbliche e il lobbying in Italia (Public Relations and Lobbying in Italy), Laterza, Rome–Bari, 2010.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 51 may reach a reader on the left or right, and he likes you, then perhaps he reads something else, and he comes back because before he was used to his personal library ... the web is an open culture, the newspaper kiosk no longer exists (OJ 1).

4.1.2 Ethics In the digital environment, news desks compete within a real-time news landscape. Consequently, the intensifying time pressure (see section 4.1.1) can lead to compromises on the extent to which stories are verifi ed. Th is change in the journalists’ ethics of verifi cation is accentuated in online journalism by the “luxury” of being able to correct or change stories post-publication and in real time, which lessens the perceived need to get it right fi rst time.

4.2 Investigative Journalism

4.2.1 Opportunities While digitization has surely improved diverse aspects of news provision, it has not enhanced the prospects for investigative journalism in Italy. Investigative journalism of a certain quality is still the preserve of the large television networks, led by RAI, although it is also undertaken by commercial media—for example, La7 and Sky Italia—as well as by some programs broadcast by the Mediaset group. Also, some sectors of paper- based journalism, especially the weeklies, continue to engage in valid investigative journalism. However, this is not yet the case with the digital media, and in particular with online journalism, which is mostly a desk-centered activity. Research for this report confi rms that investigative journalism is expensive in terms of human and fi nancial resources, and online newsrooms just cannot aff ord this kind of journalism.94

4.2.2 Threats All the online newsrooms that were visited in our research, even those of leading newspapers, employed between 7 and 25 members. Th e oldest online newsrooms are 12 years old. Th e integration of new journalists has been a gradual process. At the same time, there has been a relative decline in numbers of staﬀ journalists in traditional newsrooms. A typical professional journalist in the digital environment must be able to work on a range of topics and news categories, even in the case of a newsroom with 25 journalists. Th is necessarily impacts negatively on the capacity for newsrooms to undertake the kind of in-depth, long term, and specialized reporting characteristic of investigative journalism.

With regard to the protection of sources and the problems of increased surveillance and communications monitoring, the legal norms that applied to traditional journalism apply also to the world of online news.

94. Th is research consisted of visits to newsrooms and interviews with journalists.

52 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 4.2.3 New Platforms Th ere have been conspicuous examples of investigative journalism by freelance journalists, aided by the enhanced investigative tools provided by digitization, but their quality is not comparable with that of the large television networks. Th ere is also little if any evidence that citizen journalists are picking up the investigative reins. Rather, the Italian blogosphere is concerned primarily with media criticism, generating numerous discussion forums in which mainstream media content is scrutinized and analyzed.

4.2.4 Dissemination and Impact Investigative journalism has been enhanced by digitization with respect to dissemination and impact. Th e most important example here is the publisher Chiarelettere, which specializes in major journalistic investigations. Readers meet authors on its website (Chiarelettere.it), where they discuss issues and items of Chiarelettere books, and there are both authors’ and readers’ blogs. At the same time, you can ﬁ nd documents and materials linked to each journalistic investigation (journalists can publish online what they cannot publish within the book due to the constraints of physical space). Th is publisher has launched the annual Investigative Journalism Festival, now in its third year, based in Marsala, in Sicily.

Another signiﬁ cant example is oﬀ ered by television news channel Sky Tg24, launched on 31 July 2003 as an all-Italian all-news channel (owned by Sky Italia) with round-the-clock news updated every half- hour. Th e importance of this news channel—which distinguishes itself by greater attention to investigative journalism—was evident during research for this report. In all the newsrooms we visited, there was always at least one television set tuned to Sky Tg24, which was considered a reliable and authoritative source for the updating of online websites.

4.3 Social and Cultural Diversity

4.3.1 Sensitive Issues Due to the nature of Italian socio-demographics, and in line with much of the European Union, one of the most culturally sensitive news issues concerns immigration. Th e scale of recent immigration, and the controversies surrounding it, makes this an important topic for the media. Romanians, Albanians, and Moroccans were in 2009 the most populous immigrant groups, accounting together for more than 40 percent of the 4.2 million immigrants in Italy.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 53 Table 14. Th e number of immigrants in Italy by citizenship, 2009

Citizenship Number Percentage of total number of immigrants

Romania 887,763 21.0

Albania 466,684 11.0

Morocco 431,529 10.2

China 188,352 4.4

Ukraine 174,129 4.1

Philippines 123,584 2.9

India 105,863 2.5

Poland 105,608 2.5

Moldova 105,600 2.5

Tunisia 103,678 2.4

Macedonia 92,847 2.2

Peru 87,747 2.1

Ecuador 85,940 2.0

Egypt 82,064 1.9

Sri Lanka 75,343 1.8

Bangladesh 73,965 1.7

Total 16 countries 3,190,696 75.3

Total 4,235,059 100 Source: Istat, December 2009, available at http://demo.istat.it/str2009/index_e.html (accessed 15 March 2011).

Religion, too, is another core issue of cultural sensitivity. Th e signiﬁ cant proportion of Muslims in the immigrant population has given increased prominence on the national news agenda to diverse issues ranging from the building of proper places of worship to the mainstream tolerance or acceptance of the burqa worn by some Muslim women. Th e presence of Christian symbols in public places has also been a growing issue of controversy. Th is is a topic that comes up in the news several times, whenever a non-Catholic group or single citizens with secular attitudes ask for the end of the obligation to hang the cruciﬁ x in public places such as schools, tribunals, police stations, and the like. Th e usually strong reaction from Catholics on one side, and the populist Lega Nord (Northern League) political party on the other, makes this issue a particularly heated one.95

95. M. Ainis, “Sul crocifi sso un muro divide le aule d’Italia” (About a crucifi x: a wall divides the classrooms of Italy), Il Sole 24 Ore, 27 February 2011, available at http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/cultura/2011-02-27/crocifi sso-muro-divide-aule-150635.shtml (accessed 11 March 2011).

54 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e global economic crisis has also led to the resurgence of issues relating to labor and the youth, following a groundswell of industrial action and social protests in 2010. One recent example is the news-breaking issue of youth unemployment. Th e national media has paid this topic keen attention and given it extensive coverage. Repubblica.it asked readers to tell their personal experiences. Th ese stories provided content for extended coverage on the newspaper’s website.

4.3.2 Coverage of Sensitive Issues Coverage of the issues highlighted above in news outlets has been left to the ethical sensibilities of individual editors. During our research none of these expressed the need for any sort of speciﬁ c external or self-regulatory mechanisms for dealing with this type of coverage. However, we might consider certain aspects worthy of regulatory attention, for instance with regard to how and when cultural or national labels are used by journalists.

Italian media do not habitually classify non-immigrant criminals as “Italian”, while those who are of immigrant nationality or descent are often labeled as immigrants. We might then question whether journalists may be complicit, unwittingly or not, in stirring social tensions through their use of such labeling. Sociologists who study immigration and stigma often blame the media for misleading portrayals of immigrants’ activities.96

Certain protections have been put in place, namely with respect to the representation in Italian media of, respectively, minors and of asylum seekers, refugees, victims of traﬃ cking, and migrants. Th e Carta di Treviso (Treviso Charter) was drawn up in October 1990 by the mainstream media organizations to establish ethical guidelines for the media coverage of minors.

In June 2008, the National Council of the Order of Journalists (Consiglio Nazionale dell’Ordine dei Giornalisti, CNOG) and the Italian National Press Federation (Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana, FNSI) approved the Carta di Roma (Rome Charter), which outlines a code of conduct for journalists who deal with “information regarding asylum seekers, refugees, victims of traﬃ cking and migrants living in Italy and elsewhere”.97 CNOG and FNSI have also pledged in the Charter to insert issues related to such issues in training courses for journalists and to hold regular study seminars on the way such issues are represented by print, radio, and television media outlets.

Furthermore, an independent monitoring centre, the Osservatorio Carta di Roma (Rome Charter Observatory), which works with universities, research institutes, and relevant NGOs, was established to monitor developments in both print and broadcast media coverage of such issues and to present its ﬁ ndings

96. See L. Queirolo Palmas and A.T. Torre, Il fantasma della bande. Genova e i Latinos (Th e Phantom of the Bands. Genoa and the Latinos), Frilli Editore, Genoa, 2003. 97. Th e Charter was the outcome of the works of a Consultative Committee whose members included representatives of the Interior Ministry, the Social Solidarity Ministry, the National Oﬃ ce Against Racial Discrimination (Uﬃ cio Nazionale Antidiscriminazioni Razziali, UNAR), the Presi- dency of the Council of Ministers—Department for Equal Opportunities, La Sapienza University, and Roma III University, as well as Italian and foreign journalists. Th e text of the Charter is available (in Italian) at www.scribd.com/doc/34729843/La-Carta-di-Roma.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 55 to Italian and European research institutes and universities, as well as to relevant European Union and Council of Europe agencies dealing with discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance. On 20 July 2010, the Observatory launched the ﬁ rst issue of its Bulletin, in which it shows that, despite the adoption of the Rome Charter, signiﬁ cant problems persist in the use of stereotypes to represent immigrants and minorities, both in the print and broadcast media, such as the use of the words “clandestine”, “nigger”, and the consistent link between immigration, public order, and citizens’ security.

4.3.3 Space for Public Expression Th e results of our research have shown that with the advent of Web 2.0 and digital media, the relationship between the news provider and the reader has become more complex and sophisticated, due to the continuous ﬂ ow of comments and feedback.

Th e shift to digital requires a change of mindset in regard to the notions of social and cultural diversity. Although social divides persist along digital, cultural, technological, and economic lines, the inﬂ ow and use of thousands of sources enable the deepening, enrichment, and explanation of social and cultural issues beyond the capacity of conventional news platforms. As one of our interviewees observed:

Th e readers are antennae much closer to the ground than we are. When a certain type of signal arrives from readers, it is a signal that we elaborate journalistically. Th e readers send us alarm signals, which is very often an advantage compared with 30 years ago, when the reader would write a letter, look for a stamp, send it, and it arrived a week later. Now we have the good fortune that these inputs arrive in real time, and thanks to our readers we can identify trends, phenomena, when this was previously a much slower process. But you must be able to listen to readers, to understand what is too personal, and then what is wrong, in what we do. Another advantage–disadvantage of the internet is that criticisms reach you in real time, and many of us aren’t accustomed to this. A lot of big-name journalists aren’t used to having contacts or criticisms from readers. Th ey can’t abide by it, because they understand this work in a way that doesn’t exist anymore (MJ 1).

We consider the relationship with the reader to be very important. We have various forms. We work on Facebook, Twitter, various forums, on comments on our articles, and then we also have another formula which we schematically call the “report”, on particular social issues like, say, looking for work at a time of crisis, so we open our website to the public. We set up the big issues, and on these we develop the reader content (MJ 2).

Th e implication of these responses is signiﬁ cant. If in the past journalism could represent a conﬂ ict within a factory by interviewing some workers, a journalist today—sitting in front of her/his computer keyboard— receives every day hundreds of accounts directly from those workers, and can read their blogs or follow them on their forums. All this content is available at the same time to every reader which enables them to acquire a much more nuanced view of the issues than was possible before.

56 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Technologies have made it possible for users to participate in the production of news about social and cultural issues both as the sources of stories (which must be subsequently verifi ed or amplifi ed) and for analyzing disparate issues that result from them. Numerous online newspapers rely on the help of readers to gather stories and narratives on social issues or current events. Th ese contributions—especially when they are coordinated by careful editorial work—have a quality and richness unprecedented in the tradition of journalism: from the eff ects of the budget law surveyed by online questionnaires, to stories about violence against women or racial discrimination. Contrary to what happens with paper-based journalism, all these accounts are constantly available online in updatable news archives.

It is worth noting as a qualiﬁ er to the above that Italy is plagued by broadband access divides, particularly between regions in the north and south and between rural and urban areas (see section 1.1.2).

4.4 Political Diversity

4.4.1 Elections and Political Coverage Regulation on media coverage of political communication has not been changed as a consequence of digitization. Th e only regulation in this area is the Par Condicio Law,98 which establishes that during electoral campaign coverage, television news and political talk shows must ensure a balanced platform and airtime to all candidates.

Th e plurality of political coverage in general is by and large pegged to the party-political composition of Parliament. As a result, non-party political organizations are often ignored by the mainstream media.99

4.4.2 Digital Political Communications Th e existing political parties have engaged enthusiastically in the new patterns of communications off ered by the new digital media, in an eff ort to reach out to younger audiences disenchanted with traditional politics, and to show that they are up to speed with new technologies. Aside from the increasing use of social networks such as Facebook, two interesting examples are off ered by the launch, in 2010, of the current government’s offi cial application downloadable from Apple’s iTunes, iPad, and iPhone, called Governo Berlusconi: il governo del fare (“Berlusconi Government: the government of doing”) and the launch, in August 2011, of the opposition party Partito Democratico (Democratic Party)’s offi cial application, likewise downloadable from iTunes, iPhone, iPod, and iPad.

Both applications contain updates on the latest activities of the respective parties and oﬀ er the chance to take part in surveys and online focus groups as well as to leave feedback. Th e Democratic Party’s application also oﬀ ers the chance to watch videos from YouDem.tv, a social interactive television network launched in 2008

98. Law No. 28 of 22 February 2000 (Par Condicio Law). 99. Isimm Ricerche, 2008.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 57 by the Democratic Party and normally available on the internet, on satellite via Sky Italia, and on latest- generation mobile phones.

Th at said, the interest generated in politics through digital media appears to be quite low or, at best, to interest only those already converted to new technologies. Comments and general feedback on the political parties’ websites point their ﬁ nger at the widespread disillusion with politicians in Italy. Th e employment of new communication technologies by political parties is perceived by some as a decoy from their problems in empathizing with the grassroots base.

With regard to political diversity in media coverage, this cannot be assessed simply by counting how many times various politicians appear on television or in the press. Rather, attention must be paid to the diversity of political perspectives. Journalistic websites can provide a confrontation among diﬀ erent perspectives and political points of view far surpassing that which can be facilitated by conventional news platforms.

At the same time, the ways in which political parties and candidates are using the web could potentially have the opposite eﬀ ect, narrowing the overall range of political perspectives. Politicians use the web to dis- intermediate their messages (displacing media and journalists as intermediaries in political communication), so that they can address their constituencies directly. Except for social networks, this kind of communication leaves little space for confrontation and discussion. Th is process is not speciﬁ c to Italy, but is spreading all around the democratic world. Th e web represents a new tool which politicians, candidates, and parties all use.100 Th is does not mean that politicians reduce their availability to traditional media, which remain the most important arenas for public debate.

4.5 Assessments

Our research on the production practices of digital information content highlights a number of critical aspects related to the speed with which news items are published. Th ese problems are mainly due to reliance on institutional sources and, accordingly, to greater pressure in production routines. At the same time, we have emphasized that technological innovations, and especially the advent of Web 2.0, have given rise to a wealth of opportunities and a decisive openness to readers.

Th e research therefore suggests that the criteria used to defi ne the quality and diversity of journalistic output should be modifi ed. Because online journalism does not have signifi cant space problems, it allows for multiple linguistic styles, incorporating narratives substantially excluded from traditional journalism. Experiments in online journalism have thus had an infl uence on the agenda of traditional media. Some issues which journalism has always found diffi cult to handle (particularly on television) can be treated in all their aspects by online newsrooms, thereby compelling the traditional media to adjust. Th ere have been several cases where

100. See K.A. Foot and S.M. Schneider, Web Campaigning, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2006; P. Norris, “Preaching to the Converted. Pluralism, Partici- pation, and Party Websites,” in Party Politics, 9, January 2003, pp. 21–45.

58 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY the traditional printed papers have cited and commented on evidence from blogs and other social media, emphasizing the online sources. Th e WikiLeaks disclosure of sensitive material from United States embassies was the case that provoked the greatest media coverage in Italy, as elsewhere.

Research for this report challenges the common assumption that the online news agenda is intrinsically broader than that of traditional platforms (analog broadcasting and print). News sites often opt to stick within a relatively narrow range of topics and stories, and focus instead on encouraging interaction with their audience. Th is is not to say that pluralism and diversity are not enhanced overall, in online news, thanks to the vast number of niche outlets and other ways in which digital journalism is available to the public.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 59 5. Digital Media and Technology

5.1 Spectrum

5.1.1 Spectrum Allocation Policy Discussion of spectrum allocation needs to be seen in terms of the relations among three diﬀ erent actors and their relative powers: the media (including both incumbents and newcomers), policymakers (both national and European-level), and the regulator AGCOM. Th e stakes in the various sectors are very high, and the contest for them is shaped by the tendency of national policies to favor incumbents, and of European-level policies to accelerate the entry of particular newcomers.101

As we have seen (in section 2.1.3), the European Commission initiated an infringement procedure against Italy in July 2006, seeking clarifi cations of the legislative norms regulating the transition from analog to digital broadcasting.102 Th e investigation had stemmed from a complaint by the consumers’ association Altroconsumo, which argued that such norms accorded unjustifi ed advantages to the incumbent analog operators, in contrast with European legislation on competition. In particular, the Italian norms did not limit the number of frequencies the incumbent could acquire to what was strictly necessary to replace their analog programs with digital ones and did not oblige the incumbent to return those frequencies—previously used for analog broadcasting—that would be freed after switch-off .103

In the meantime, in January 2008, the European Court of Justice oﬃ cially acknowledged, in a case involving new operator Centro Europa 7 against the Ministry of Communications and AGCOM, that the Italian norms regulating the transition from analog to digital broadcasting technology restrict the entry of new operators in the digital broadcasting market in favor of the incumbent operators, and that this violates

101. Th is situation is easily veriﬁ able in the case of the distribution of analog frequencies, where the lobby for the incumbents (namely RAI and Mediaset) has pressured the government to prevent the access of newcomers, i.e. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which in turn has lodged an appeal citing the European Union’s laws on competition (see Il Corriere della Sera, 10 July 2010, p. 9). 102. Th e norms in question were included in the Law No. 66 of 20 March 2001 (Digital Broadcasting Law), Law No. 112/2004, and the subsequent Consolidated Broadcasting Act No. 117/2005. 103. See A. Arena and R. Mastroianni, European Commission, Letter of Formal Notice to Italy concerning Rules on Electronic Communications, IRIS 2006–8: 5/5.

60 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY the objective, transparent, non-discriminatory, and proportionate criteria established by the European framework regulation on electronic communications.104 Subsequently, the Italian authorities committed to adopt a national plan setting out new criteria for allocating digital frequencies.105 Th is concession led the European Commission to suspend the infringement procedure against Italy, reserving the right to resume it any time while monitoring the implementation of the above plan.

AGCOM’s plan has raised several controversies, considering that in the meantime analog switch-oﬀ has continued on a regional basis, without waiting for the approval of the national plan, so that 10 regions are now receiving digital broadcasts.106 As a consequence, the implementation of the new national plan risks subverting the allocation of certain frequencies that has already taken place at regional level.107 In particular, under the plan, the local broadcasting stations—often synonymous with richness and completeness in the production and distribution of information—would risk being left without frequencies in regions such as Veneto, Lombardy, and Emilia Romagna. Th e dispute, whose solution will be decisive for the structure of the Italian media system, is therefore technical and normative, with frequencies with billions of euros at stake.

Secondly, as we have seen (see section 2.1.3), according to the new plan, a total of fi ve national MUXs will be auctioned in a “beauty contest” before the analog switch-off deadline of 31 December 2012. Th ree of these MUXs have been reserved to new operators, whereas incumbent operators, including RAI and Mediaset, will be allowed to compete for the remaining two. Th e specifi c rules of the auction, drafted by the Ministry of Communications and authorized by the European Commissioner for Competition, were published on 8 July 2011.108 However, the prospect of a contest with scores based on the quality of the off er and previous experience in broadcasting has heightened anew concerns that the incumbents—RAI and Mediaset in particular—will acquire the license to operate the MUXs and strengthen their duopoly in the digital market.

Finally, another thorny issue concerns the radio spectrum freed by analog switch-oﬀ , which the National Plan has assigned to telecommunications services. Another tender will take place for the assignment of these frequencies to telecommunications companies, but at present these frequencies are occupied by at least 200 local television stations, which received them through the progressive regional digitization described above.

104. European Court of Justice, Case C-380/05, Centro Europa 7/Ministero delle Comunicazioni e AGCOM, 31 January 2008, par. 112–115. 105. Th e new criteria were approved by AGCOM Decision No. 181/09 of 7 April 2009 (incorporated into Article 45 of Law No. 88 of 2009), and subsequent Regulation No. 300/10 of 3 June 2010, which adopted the National Plan for the Assignment of Frequencies in Digital Techniques (http://www.agcom.it/default.aspx?DocID=4532) further integrated by Deliberation No. 497 of 23 September 2010 (http://www.agcom.it/default. aspx?DocID=5221) and Regulation 353 of 25 June 2011 (http://www.agcom.it/default.aspx?DocID=6564) (accessed on 25 August 2011). 106. Map of digital regions available at http://www.digitaleterrestrefacile.it/tag/switch-off -digitale-terrestre/ (updated to 11 April 2011 and accessed on 8 August 2011). 107. AGCOM’s Plan foresees 57 television channels: eight in the VHF band, of which one is reserved for digital radio, and one for new operator Centro Europa 7. RAI will experiment with second-generation digital. Planned for the UHF band are 20 MUXs for national television, plus four DVB–H MUXs. Th e 24 national MUXs will be fl anked by 13 MUXs reserved for local television, to which are added the nine that may be freed up for telecommunications. Th ere will be fi ve free MUXs put out to tender. Finally, the plan reserves one third of frequencies to local television stations and assigns other frequencies to telecommunications services (the so-called external digital dividend) (see AGCOM, Regula- tion No. 300/10 of 3 June 2010 and Il Sole 24 Ore, 4 June 2010, p. 27). 108. Th e text of the offi cial announcement of the auction is available (in Italian) at http://www.sviluppoeconomico.gov.it/images/stories/Bandi/ Bando-2011.pdf. Th e rules of the beauty context are available (in Italian) at http://www.sviluppoeconomico.gov.it/images/stories/Bandi/Disci- plinare2011_Errata_corrige.pdf.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 61 In order to release these frequencies, the government has approved norms that “expropriate” nine frequencies (corresponding to UHF channels 61–69) which are already used by at least 200 local television stations, in order to make them available for the tender.109 Local television stations are also banned from challenging the government’s expropriations to the competent administrative courts and can only challenge before such courts the amount of the compensation received by the government. Th e organizations that represent local television companies have announced that they will challenge the constitutionality of such norms in court.110

5.1.2 Transparency Th e European Union is playing a crucial role in ensuring relative transparency in the allocation process. Given the obvious conﬂ ict of interest posed by the Prime Minister’s personal ownership of the principal commercial broadcaster, Italian media policy (and spectrum allocation in particular) has long been a point of focused attention for the European Commission. In particular, the concern has been to ensure that decisions are made according to European regulatory principles which call for transparent, non-discriminatory, and proportional procedures in the allocation of radio-electrical frequencies. For instance, in 2008 the European Court of Justice found the Italian authorities had unfairly discriminated against broadcaster Centro Europa 7—a competitor of the two dominant terrestrial incumbents—and violated the spectrum allocation criteria established by the European regulatory framework (see section 7.2.3).111 Indeed, Centro Europa 7 had won the license to use analog frequencies tendered by the government, but was then denied the assignation of the frequencies because the latter were (illegally) occupied by one of the Prime Minister’s private television channels, Rete Quattro (Channel Four). Following the planned switch-over to digital technology, Centro Europa 7 has been promised a DVB–T2 frequency with higher quality standards.

AGCOM, for its part, has tried to maximize transparency in its frequency management. In 2009, AGCOM’s Deliberation No. 181/09 established the general criteria for the “complete digitization of terrestrial television” and the rights to operate the related frequencies.112 However, concerns remain regarding the forthcoming “beauty contest” that will assign ﬁ ve digital MUXs and the transparency of the rules and procedures that will allocate the MUX to new and/or incumbent operators, which could potentially perpetuate the RAI– Mediaset duopoly in the digital market (see section 5.1.1).

5.1.3 Competition for Spectrum Italy occupies a unique position within Western Europe, in that a three-times serving prime minister owns half of the terrestrial television duopoly and controls the other half through his institutional role as head of the government.113 Th is has to some extent reduced the pressure on the leading incumbent operators, RAI

109. Article 1, par. 8–13, Law No. 220 of 13 December 2010 and Article 4, Decree No. 34/2011 (incorporated into Law No. 75 of 26 May 2011). 110. See Radio TV Associations Secretariat (Coordinamento Associazioni Radio TV, CARTv), press release, 4 April 2011, available at http:// www.presspool.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6892:comunicato-stampa-cartv--coordinamento-associazioni-radio- tv&catid=23:broadcast&Itemid=70 (accessed on 25 August 2011). 111. European Court of Justice, Case C-380/05, Centro Europa 7/Ministero delle Comunicazioni e AGCOM, 31 January 2008, par. 112–115. 112. Text available (in Italian) at http://www.agcom.it/default.aspx?message=viewdocument&docID=2964 (accessed on 25 August 2011). 113. State-owned shares in RAI (i.e. 99.5 percent) are controlled by the State through the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

62 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY and Mediaset, to lobby parliament and government. For, as noted in section 5.1.1, the forthcoming “beauty contest” to allocate available digital MUXs appears to oﬀ er considerable advantages to the incumbents, perpetuating the absence of a real market for spectrum.

RAI and Mediaset have both tried to stiﬂ e competition in the digital market. In November 2009, they both opposed Sky Italia’s request to take part in the upcoming “beauty contest”. RAI and Mediaset argued that the conditions established by the European Commission in 2003, which prevented Sky Italia from entering the digital terrestrial television market until 2012 on account of its dominant position in the pay-TV market, remained valid. However, both the European Commission and the Italian Council of State (the supreme administrative court) rejected RAI’s and Mediaset’s argument and stated that Sky Italia should be allowed to participate, on condition that it limits its bidding to one MUX and uses it only to broadcast free-to-air television for a period of ﬁ ve years.114 For its part, Mediaset has announced that it will appeal the European Commission’s decision in the European Court of Justice.115

5.2 Digital Gatekeeping

5.2.1 Technical Standards Th e Plan approved by AGCOM on 3 June 2010 for the allocation of frequencies does not discuss technical standards, which has never been an issue in Italy. Th e question of technical standards, besides being decisive for balancing the distribution of frequencies, will be resolved locally—region by region—by technical committees which will bear in mind the needs of regional television (at present the real loser in the distribution). None of the regulators has disclosed any data on the adoption of technical standards for digital broadcasting.

5.2.2 Gatekeepers To date, in Italy, the only signifi cant gatekeeping threat appears to be in the telecommunications sector, following initiatives by telecoms operators such as Vodafone, TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) and Wind to block or restrict access to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications (i.e. Skype) and “peer-to-peer” services (i.e. fi le-sharing) through their mobile bands, unless customers pay higher fees.116 Th is prompted AGCOM to launch a public consultation process in February 2011, on “net neutrality” in general, and another specifi cally on consumer rights and safeguarding competition regarding VoIP and peer-to-peer services on the mobile band.117

114. See European Commission, “Mergers: Commission allows Sky Italia to participate in allocation of digital terrestrial TV frequencies, subject to conditions,” press release, 10 July 2010, available at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/983&type=HTML; and M. Mele, “Il Consiglio di Stato apre all’asta Sky” (Th e Advisory Council to the Government admits the auction to Sky), Il Sole 24 Ore, 11 March 2011, available at http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/economia/2011-03-01/consiglio-stato-apre-asta-064128.shtml?uuid=AaNbiUCD (accessed on 25 August 2011). 115. Mediaset, “Decision by EU Commission: Mediaset to appeal to the European Court of Justice,” press release, 20 July 2010, available at http:// www.mediaset.it/corporate/salastampa/2010/comunicatostampa_5656_en.shtml (accessed on 25 August 2011). 116. F. Vendrame, “Guerra tra Skype e Vodafone per il Voip” (War Between Skype and Vodafone for VoIP), Digital.it, 8 February 2011, available at http://tariﬀ e.digital.it/guerra-tra-skype-e-vodafone-per-il-voip-6192.html (accessed on 25 August 2011). 117. See AGCOM, “Net Neutrality,” press release, 28 February 2011, available at http://www.agcom.it/default.aspx?DocID=5788 (accessed on 21 July 2010).

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 63 5.2.3 Transmission Networks We are aware of no cases where transmission network operators have intervened in spectrum allocation. However, an important recent development may imply a future threat. In March 2011, Mediaset announced the start of negotiations, on an exclusive basis, with DMT Towertel, the leading Italian company operating broadcast-transmission towers, in order to gain control of their business unit through a merger.118 On 28 July, the two companies announced that they had reached a deal for a merger to be approved by their stakeholders in October, to become eﬀ ective as of December 2011.119 If this deal goes ahead, the new Mediaset-controlled entity would become the leading operator, owning and hiring the use of transmission towers to its digital broadcasting competitors. Th e other operator is the RAI-controlled company RAI Way, which leases its infrastructure exclusively to RAI.120 Th is would replicate the traditional duopoly in broadcast television within the crucial market of digital terrestrial transmission infrastructure. Although this in itself would not imply direct interference in spectrum allocation, it would potentially pose a problem in the practical use of the frequencies by other broadcasters.

5.3 Telecommunications

5.3.1 Telecoms and News In Italy, telecoms operate mainly as providers of internet connections and services for mobile devices. Telecoms have not been involved in the production of content, with two exceptions. Th e fi rst is Telecom Italia’s ownership of the national broadcaster La7 since before the onset of digitization. Due to the switch- over process, La7—like the incumbents Mediaset and RAI—has increased its off er with two further channels available digitally. Th e second exception is 3, an enterprise which occupies a small niche in the mobile market dominated by Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) and Vodafone, and is trying to produce and off er mobile audiovisual content. However, its provision of news is insignifi cant.

Despite the approval in 2000 and 2001 by AGCOM of norms regulating the authorization of licenses for televisions operating via cable,121 their development has been much lower than initially expected.122 Th e main reasons are probably the high costs of cable infrastructure, the more rapid diﬀ usion of satellite transmission, and, last but not least, Italian viewers’ deeply rooted habit of choosing established “generalist” free-to-air broadcasters as their favorite options.

118. See Mediaset, “DMT—Mediaset: negotiations to combine communication infrastructure networks,” press release, 30 March 2011, available at http://www.mediaset.it/investor/documenti/2011/notizia_6030_en.shtml (accessed on 10 August 2011). 119. See “Mediaset, DMT Reach Tower Merger Deal; Completed By Year’s End,” the Wall Street Journal, 28 July 2011, available at http://online.wsj. com/article/BT-CO-20110728-720462.html (accessed on 20 August 2011). 120. For concerns about competition raised in La Repubblica, see G. Balestreri and L. Pagni, “Frequenze Tv, Assalto ai Ripetitori: Mediaset-Dmt verso il Monopolio” (TV Frequencies, Assault on the Antenna Towers: Media-DMT Towards a Monopoly), La Repubblica, 10 April 2011, available at http://www.repubblica.it/economia/2011/04/10/news/frequenze_tv-14746124/ (accessed on 10 August 2011). 121. AGCOM Deliberation 209/01/CONS (available, in Italian, at http://www2.agcom.it/provv/d_289_01_CONS.htm). 122. In 2008, three national broadband providers—Telecom Italia, Tiscali, and Infostrada—launched their own cable television services via IPTV. In February 2011, private television broadcaster Sky Italia and Italian broadband telecoms company Fastweb announced an alliance to launch an “Internet + TV” package, using Sky’s television content and Fastweb’s private broadband network. Th eir agreement extends a previous 2006 deal under which Sky Italia’s television content was distributed on Fastweb’s IPTV network.

64 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 5.3.2 Pressure of Telecoms on News Providers Th e research for this report discovered no evidence of such pressure.

5.4 Assessments

Spectrum allocation policy in Italy has tended to favor incumbents in both broadcasting and telecommunications. With respect to the former, competition has been opened up under pressure from the European Commission and the European Court of Justice. However, attempts to boost pluralism in this sector are still at risk of being thwarted by the outcome of the digitization process, the way the allocation of frequencies and MUX will be carried out, and the threat of a new RAI–Mediaset duopoly in the ownership and management of the digital transmission infrastructure.

In none of the three sectors analyzed here—television, ﬁ xed, and mobile internet—has the issue of content, or enrichment of the supply, ever been on the agenda. In short, this is still a phase in which technology—not the content provision—takes priority.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 65 6. Digital Business

6.1 Ownership

6.1.1 Legal Developments in Media Ownership Th e most recent legislation governing the Italian media system was the so-called Gasparri Law, enacted in 2004, and the subsequent Legislative Decree No. 177/2005 (the Consolidated Broadcasting Act). According to the antitrust provisions of the Gasparri Law, a single broadcaster cannot be allowed to operate more than 20 percent of the total number of national television channels and at the same time generate more than 20 percent of the total revenues of the entire media sector included in the so-called Integrated Communications System (SIC).123 During the transition between analog and digital terrestrial broadcasting, the 20 percent limit is to be calculated on the basis of the overall number of television hours broadcast on a national basis on terrestrial frequencies, both analog and digital, without distinguishing between generalist channels, telemarketing channels, or pay-TV channels. AGCOM is in charge of supervising the broadcast market and may take the measures necessary to prevent or eliminate the formation of such dominant positions.124

A recent development concerns the regulation of cross-ownership of broadcast and print media. Th e Gasparri Law removes the existing ban on television broadcasters who operate more than one national channel to own or purchase shares of publishers of newspapers as of 31 December 2010.125 Th is ban was subsequently supposed to expire on 31 March 2011. However, it has now been further extended until 31 December 2012.126

In 2004, the approval of the so-called Frattini Law was hailed by the government as the solution to the confl ict of interests aff ecting Prime Minister Berlusconi, who owns one of the largest private television and communications groups, Mediaset, and the head of a government that has eff ective control over RAI.127 Th e

123. Article 15, par. 1–2, Law No. 112/2004. Th e SIC is deﬁ ned as a comprehensive media market encompassing television, publishing, radio, internet, direct advertising activities, sponsorships, revenues from RAI’s annual license fee, sales of movie tickets, rented or sold DVDs, and direct state grants to print publishers. 124. Article 14, par. 2–3, Law No. 112/2004. 125. Article 15, par. 6, Law No. 112/2004. 126. Article 3, Decree No. 34/2011 (incorporated into Law No. 75 of 26 May 2011). 127. Law on Regulations in the Field of Solving Conﬂ icts of Interest, No. 215 of 20 July 2004 (Frattini Law) (hereafter, Law No. 215/2004).

66 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Frattini Law states, in general, that it is incompatible for the manager of a company to hold a public offi ce.128 However, this incompatibility is not extended to the owner or the controlling shareholder of the company, which is exactly the case with Berlusconi’s dual position of prime minister and owner of a private media empire. Besides, the sanctions provided in the Law for breaching the rules on confl ict of interests—which can be issued by the Italian Antitrust Authority and by AGCOM—consist of minimal pecuniary fi nes, imposed again on the company manager and not on its owner or controlling shareholder.

6.1.2 New Entrants in the News Market Th e ongoing evolution of the media system is producing a broader range of content delivered via new media platforms. But it has not yet given rise to radical changes among the companies dominant in the various sectors, which at most have seen increased competition by well-established companies operating in other sectors, or by small ones which do not encroach on their dominant positions. It is certain, however, that the overall system is moving in the direction of convergence whereby companies which previously operated in diﬀ erent markets compete against each other.

Most representative in this regard is the internet news sector: all major news providers operating across sectors—except for the telecoms, whose websites are dedicated mainly to commercial off ers—have a developed online presence, alongside online-only news websites. It has also been in this fi eld that Italy has seen the highest number of new entrants in recent years, albeit mainly small enterprises with localized newsrooms. Th e National Association of Online Press (Associazione Nazionale Stampa Online, ANSO) represents more or less 70 newsrooms established in every part of the country: from small quarter to region. Although they range from volunteer-based non-profi ts to professional commercial enterprises, they constitute a new sector which is en masse competitive with the major owners of news online.

6.1.3 Ownership Consolidation Th ere have been no major changes in the ownership structures of the various companies operating in the markets considered, and no horizontal or vertical mergers. Indeed, they remain ﬁ rmly in the hands of their traditional owners.129 As regards the television sector, Mediaset continues to belong to Berlusconi’s Fininvest S.p.A., while Sky Italia—a colossus at world level but still a newcomer in Italy—belongs, as is well-known, to the Australian-born magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Among the three largest companies in the publishing market is Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso, which belongs to Carlo De Benedetti’s Compagnie Industriali Riunite (CIR). Besides interests in the media (publishing, radio, and digital television), the group also has stakes in energy, the production of components for the auto industry, healthcare, and ﬁ nancial services. Berlusconi’s Fininvest retains a majority 50.1 percent stake in Mondadori, the largest publisher of periodicals.

128. Article 2, par. 1, Law No. 215/2004. 129. Th is also applies to RAI which, despite repeated proposals for its privatization, is still publicly owned.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 67 Finally, RCS MediaGroup (owner of Il Corriere della Sera and La Gazzetta dello Sport) has a diversifi ed but well-defi ned group of shareholders with consolidated positions in the Italian industrial and fi nancial system. Th e relative majority shareholders are Mediobanca, with 14.3 percent of the group, and Fiat, with 10.5 percent.130 Th e ownership structure in the publishing industry refl ects a longstanding and typically Italian problem: the lack of owners whose core business is the publishing industry (in Italy, one speaks of the absence of a “pure publisher”).

6.1.4 Telecoms Business and the Media Th e beginning of a proactive involvement of the telecoms industry in the media sector can be dated to 2001, when Telecom Italia announced the acquisition of national private commercial television channel Tele Monte Carlo (TMC) through its controlled company SEAT Pagine Gialle. On 24 June 2001, TMC was oﬃ cially closed and reopened under the name La7. At present, La7 is owned by Telecom Italia Media, the media branch of Telecom Italia created in 2003. Its programming is mainly culture- and news-oriented and it is currently airing in DVB–T format while continuing analog transmission as well until the end of the digital transition.

On 23 March 2011, Telecom Italia Media launched another brand new channel on the digital terrestrial platform, called La7d. Th is channel, unlike La7, focuses mainly on light entertainment and broadcasts ﬁ lms, talk shows, television series, soap operas, and some programming from La7.

Telecom Italia Media also controls 51 percent of MTV Italia, the Italian version of the music and youth entertainment channel MTV, available both on digital platform and on analog until the end of the digital transition.

6.1.5 Transparency of Media Ownership Article 21 of the Italian Constitution explicitly demands that the means of ﬁ nancing a media business be disclosed publicly. Th e role of AGCOM in this regard is crucial. Among the general principles of the television system, the law provides that it shall be guaranteed maximum transparency of corporate structure.

AGCOM is obliged by law to maintain a Register of Communications Operators that includes all the media companies operating in the country.131 Th is register is intended to ensure transparency of ownership as well as the funding behind media companies, to strengthen the implementation of the antitrust rules. Operators in the communications sector are thus obliged by law to report, annually, data that are public and accessible, based on requests in advance to AGCOM. Moreover, the Annual Report of the Authority, available online, provides substantial information on major media enterprises, some of which have their shares ﬂ oated on the stock exchange and are therefore subject to speciﬁ c rules on disclosure of information about their activities.

130. Data from the Borsa Italiana website, available at http://www.borsaitaliana.it/homepage/homepage.htm (accessed on 25 August 2011). 131. Law No. 249 of1997, Art. 1/a/5-6 and AGCOM’s Deliberation No. 666/08/CONS (Regulation for the management and keeping of the Reg- ister of Communications Operators, available, in Italian, at http://www.agcom.it/Default.aspx?message=visualizzadocument&DocID=6553) (accessed on 25 August 2011).

68 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY However, AGCOM’s powers to supervise and enforce eff ective disclosure of such information are relatively limited. Th e reports submitted by the registered communications operators are occasionally checked by the Authority’s Inspectorate by random sampling or following specifi c complaints. Whenever the Inspectorate fi nds discrepancies with the content of the reports, these are noted in the Register of Communications Operators and a warning is issued to the operators requesting clarifi cations. Th e operators that fail to submit the mandatory reports within the established deadline are subject to non-punitive pecuniary fi nes, whereas those whose reports are found in breach of the rules on content of the Register and fail to comply with the warning issued by the Authority incur slightly higher fi nes. If the violations concern the norms on dominant positions, the fi nes issued by AGCOM are more consistent, ranging between 2 percent and 5 percent of the turnover of the operator in the last term prior to the warning. Only when the violations are extremely serious or repeated is AGCOM empowered to suspend the operator’s license or authorization up to six months or even to revoke it. However, this has yet to happen.

6.2 Media Funding

6.2.1 Public and Private Funding Th e funding in the Italian media has grown steadily in the past ﬁ ve years, exceeding €13 billion in 2010. Th e overall growth in spending stood at some 25 percent during 2005–2010.132 Advertising still accounts for the largest part of the expenditure in the Italian media sector. It represented almost 57 percent of the entire ad spending in Italy in 2010.

At the same time, although they remained more or less stable, revenues from the license fee, going mostly to RAI, saw their importance fall signiﬁ cantly. Th eir share of the total funding in the media in 2010 was at 10 percent, some four percentage points less than in 2005. Th is was due to the growth of other forms of funding, namely direct sales (pay-TV subscriptions and sales of newspapers) and advertising in the print media. Th at said, much of the growth in the direct sales segment was generated by pay-TV. In parallel, revenues from sales of newspapers declined slowly but steadily from €1.76 billion to €1.21 billion. Th e share of pay-TV in the total direct sales went up from 49 percent in 2005 to 70 percent ﬁ ve years later.

132. We included in this calculation solely those ﬂ ows of spending relevant for our study, excluding all other forms of advertising spending such as outdoor or cinema advertising.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 69 Table 15. Evolution of public and private spending in the media sector in Italy, 2005–2010 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009** 2010o** Advertising in print media*** 1,598 2,302 2,473 2,413 3,164 3,162 License fee (public television) 1,483 1,491 1,567 1,603 1,531 1,558 Advertising in television broadcasting 3,940 3,911 3,967 3,929 4,024 4,324 Revenues from pay-TV and sales of copies of print media 3,485 3,849 4,061 4,298 4,158 4,142 Total 10,506 11,553 12,068 12,243 12,877 13,186 Notes: * only pay-TV revenues, ** for 2009 and 2010, AGCOM changed the methodology for calculating revenues from sales of copies of print media. Th is table uses estimated revenues from sales of copies from the largest publishers, which are comparable to the data for previous years in this table, *** including their online operations. o: outlook. Source: Open Society Foundation (OSF) calculations based on data from AGCOM, 2006–2011.

Analysis of the media system must necessarily be based on the distribution of advertising investments. Regardless of the medium considered, apart from rare exceptions, the principal business model is still centered on advertising revenue. Exceptions are public television (which also collects license fees), the entire sector of satellite and pay-per-view digital television, and the daily press, which can also count on proceeds from sales.

Table 16. Sources of funding of prominent television players in Italy, 2009 Total revenues, €m, 2009 Change (%) 08–09 RAI 2,728 0.3 Fee 1,630 1.7 Advertising 908 –17.2 Other 190 n/a Sky Italia 2,711 2.7 Advertising 223 –4.0 Pay 2,463 3.8 Other 26 –24.9 RTI–Mediaset 2,506 –1.0 Advertising 1,983 –8.4 Pay 308 54.8 Other 215 28.7 Telecom Italia Media 139 –8.2 Advertising 133 –0.7 Pay 0 n/a Other 7 –2.0 Other Broadcasters 425 32.6 Advertising 444 5.7 Pay 20 n/a Other 110 199.2 Note: n/a: not available. Source: AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010.

70 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY But advertising revenue is of crucial importance for all these sectors as well. Th e distinctive feature of the Italian media system—conﬁ ned for decades to a rigid television duopoly which overwhelmed the rest of the media—was legitimated by the distribution of advertising revenues, traditionally the preserve of television. Despite the buoyancy of the system from the point of view of content delivery and distributive technologies, advertising revenues have been signiﬁ cantly impacted by the recent recession.

In 2010, the total advertising spend saw a mild increase of up to 3 percent year-on-year after it fell steeply by some 13 percent year-on-year in 2009. Th is trend, however, reversed in the ﬁ rst months of 2010, with general growth being recorded. Th e distribution of advertising still favors the provision of free-to-air television, and especially of RTI–Mediaset which attracts 56 percent of total turnover in the television market.

Table 17. Advertising spending (€ million) in Italy by medium, 2010

2010 Share of total ad spending, 2010 Change (%) 09–10

Television 4,324 44.8 7.5 Press 2,720 28.2 –2.6 – of which daily 1,484 15.4 –1.1 – of which periodical 1,236 12.8 –4.4 Radio 601 6.2 7.6 Internet 995 10.3 21.8 Other 759 10.5 –17.5 Total 9,399 100.0 2.7 Source: AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2011.

6.2.1.1 Television In 2009, overall resources available to television broadcasters increased on the previous year. Revenues emanating from advertising, pay-per-view, and subscriptions reﬂ ect the evolving funding pattern for this market. While there has been a slight decrease in advertising revenue, which was historically the main source of funding for analog television, the proceeds from pay-per-view are increasing, favoring Sky Italia, which for the time being still operates via satellite, and Mediaset, which has shifted a great deal of pay-per-view content to terrestrial digital television. Th is increase in 2009, equal to 7.4 percent compared with 2008, highlights the balancing process taking place among the various companies: it is Sky Italia which receives 85.8 percent of these revenues, while the digital platform accounts for 11.2 percent.

Although representing only a small proportion of overall revenues, also of interest is the sale of content to other operators, mainly to telecoms companies, which represents 6.4 percent of total revenues.133 Th is conﬁ rms the tendency of telecoms companies to oﬀ er audiovisual digital content via their platforms, although they have not yet started to produce it.

133. AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2011 sull’attività svolta e sui programmi di lavoro (2011 Annual Report on Activity and Program of Work), 2011, available at http://www.agcom.it/Default.aspx?message=viewrelazioneannuale&idRelazione=27 (accessed on 25 August 2011) (hereafter, AG- COM, Relazione annuale 2011).

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 71 As we have seen (see section 1.3.1), in terms of total annual revenues, Sky Italia has caught up with Mediaset and RAI (they account respectively for 29.3 percent, 30.9 percent, and 28.8 percent of total revenues). Th e remaining operators (including those for IPTV) have only marginal shares of the total.

Figure 8. Total revenues per operator in the television sector (€ million), 2009–2010

3,000.0 2,770.6 Revenues (million EUR), 2010 2,630.76 2,583.18 2,562.98 2,553.84 2,490.25 Revenues (million EUR), 2009 2,500.0

2,000.0

1,500.0

1,000.0 861.09 800.64

500.0 160.17 152.68

0.00 Mediaset Sky Italia RAI Telecom Italia Media Other broadcasters (La7/MTV)

Source: AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2011.

6.2.1.2 Publishing Th e most indicative ﬁ gures show the signiﬁ cant rise in revenues from electronic publishing in Italy. Most publishing companies have indeed penetrated the digital market—mainly using the internet and, in some cases, with excellent results in terms of unique users—but this source of revenue does not compensate for the whole publishing sector’s losses.

Table 18. Total revenues by source in the publishing sector (€ million), 2009–2010

Change (%) Share of total revenue 2009 2010 2010/2009 (2010), in %

Daily newspapers 3,121 2,971 -4.8 43.0

Periodicals 3,422 3,158 -7.7 45.7

Electronic publishing 687 774 +12.7 11.2

Total revenue 7.230 6.903 -4.5 100 Source: AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2011.

72 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e overall picture, if compared with that of television, conﬁ rms that publishing is the sector which has been hardest hit by the crisis, notwithstanding that historically it has attracted less revenue overall than television and is characterized by a relatively more competitive market. Th at said, the recession has impeded the entry of new companies into the sector, which continues to be characterized by the predominance of a few operators managing complex groups with numerous national, regional, and local titles.134

In the past decade, the largest groups have remained practically the same, as shown by Table 19.135

Table 19. Share of total revenues in the publishing sector by company (%), 2009–2010

2009 2010*

RCS MediaGroup 13.5 13.3

Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso 11.0 10.9

Arnoldo Mondadori 6.8 6.9

Il Sole 24 Ore 5.1 5.0

Caltagirone Group 3.5 3.5

Condé Nast 2.3 2.5

Monrif 2.8 2.9

De Agostini 1.7 1.2

Others 53.4 54.8

Total 100.0 100.0 Note: * Data for 2010 is based on the turnover of a sample representing 60 percent of the sector. Source: AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2011.

An interesting novelty in the publishing sector is oﬀ ered by daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, founded on 23 September 2009 by renowned journalist Marco Travaglio. In order to ensure its independence, the newspaper does not receive public funding, but relies almost entirely on electronic and paper subscriptions. Th e ownership structure also reﬂ ects the aim of retaining independence: Il Fatto Quotidiano is published by stock company Editoriale Il Fatto S.p.A. According to the company statute, up to 70 percent of the shares can be owned by entrepreneurs, but none of them can own more than 16 percent of the share capital. Th e remaining 30 percent of shares are owned by the newspaper’s own columnists. Th is means that a “70 percent + 1” majority is needed to make decisions about editorial policy, which gives relevant weight to the newspaper columnists’ consent.

134. M. Polo, Notizie S.P.A., (News Inc.), Laterza, Rome–Bari, 2010, p. 57. 135. AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2011.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 73 Th e newspaper has an average circulation of 150,000 and is distributed to more than 25,000 of the 38,000 Italian newsagents. Between November 2009 and October 2010, the newspaper sold on average 70,387 copies a day. At present, one ﬁ fth of the readership is made up of subscriptions to the electronic version of the newspaper.136 On 19 November 2010, a free application was launched to enable the newspaper to be read on an iPhone.

On 25 September 2010, Il Fatto Quotidiano was awarded the Macchianera Blog Award for the “best online newspaper” in a survey conducted every year by Macchianera to identify the most popular Italian websites and blogs.

6.2.2 Other Sources of Funding Internet use continues to grow despite the constant infrastructural delays, and so do the companies which invest in online advertising. According to data furnished by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a global association of digital advertising companies, its membership in Italy grew from 30 to 150 between 2003 and 2010, indicating the growing signifi cance of online advertising. Th e advertising spend on the internet grew by more than 6.5 percent in just the fi rst three months of 2010 against the same period in 2009.137 However, companies still do not fully exploit the potential of the internet. Th is would require better planning, beyond the usual distinction between search (where Google has 90 percent of the market) and display, which generally consists only of banners. Th e growth of advertising spend in Italy appears to be driven by a diversifi cation of forms to include pop-ups, pop-unders, windows, mouse- overs, or so-called off -pages.

One of the main problems related to internet advertising concerns the dominance of Google. Th e data in Table 19 only shows companies belonging to the SIC introduced in 2004 by the Gasparri Law, which, until 2009, did not include a web colossus like Google. Th e SIC, in fact, excludes advertising revenues deriving from internet searches for keywords. Google Italia, however, almost entirely monopolizes advertising connected with the search function.138 In October 2009, AGCOM consequently began reform of the SIC so as to include Google. Th e problem, however, is that the company invoices its revenues for orders on the Italian internet from Dublin. Its Italian subsidiary, Google Italy, declares earnings of less than €20 million, and they mostly derive from services rendered to Google Ireland. As shown by the dispute between the Italian Association of Newspaper Publishers (FIEG) and Google Italia as regards Google News (see section 6.3.1), the greater diversity and quality of online information necessarily requires a more equitable distribution of internet advertising resources, which are indeed in constant growth but reward essentially only one actor.

136. See the Il Fatto Quotidiano website, available at http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/ (accessed on 18 July 2011). 137. IAB Italia, Report 2008–2009, available at http://www.iab.it/docs/news/report-iab-italia-2008-09.pdf (accessed 11 March 2011). 138. M. Mucchetti, “Google, il grande editore che non c’è” (Google, Th e Great Publisher Th at Isn’t), Il Corriere della Sera, 28 January 2010, p. 11, available at http://www.corriere.it/economia/10_gennaio_28/mucchetti_4de4be8a-0be8-11df-bc70-00144f02aabe.shtml.

74 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 6.3 Media Business Models

6.3.1 Changes in Media Business Models Recent years have seen no substantial changes in media business models as a result of digitization: license fee and advertising sources for RAI remain the same, and commercial digital media continue to be funded primarily by advertising. Policymakers have not modiﬁ ed the license fee with the advent of digitalization. Th is is not to say that traditional media business models have not come under sustained pressure as a result of digitization, or that there has not been a shift in the balance of funding sources.

Th e migration of advertisers online, while disproportionately favoring Google as discussed above, has nonetheless spurred a growth in online information sites, stemming both from traditional offl ine publishers as well as new entrants. Th e extent of this growth is diffi cult to quantify due in part to the obvious problem of defi ning what counts as a news or information website. It is clear, however, that this growth has represented added value especially for local information. As regards the national context, although these websites cannot guarantee a fl ow of new information—precisely because they are resource-poor actors reliant on the news reported by the other national mastheads—they nevertheless furnish the traditional media with a lively and diff erent agenda of interpretations and frames.

Diff erent considerations apply to traditional publishing, which has been obliged to take up the opportunities off ered by the internet, but at the same time has struggled to off set its loss of revenues from paper-based publishing. Th e number of people employed in this sector and its receipts from advertising suggest that the companies in this sector are operating at a profi t. Yet they are unable to compensate for their constant loss of market shares relative to the sale of paper-based output.

As a consequence, FIEG has been forced to take action at several levels, proposing various changes to the online news business model, which at present provides news services for free. Firstly, appeals have been lodged with both the Italian Antitrust Authority and the European Commission for monetization of the use of content by third parties. Here the reference is mainly to Google News, which gathers news online from the main information websites. Google posts the article but enables the user to read it without having to access it via the homepage of the original website. One proposal has been to add a fee to ﬂ at-rate subscriptions which is then distributed to the publishing company.139 Also, in Italy there is animated debate over pay-per-view news. Th ere have been proposals by major players to introduce subscription for access to all the website’s contents or to charge a mini-fee for each article.

At the same time, the publishing companies have developed ad hoc formats for smartphones and the iPad which, after trialing, are now available for purchase (there are still no data with which to determine whether or not these initiatives have been successful). FIEG considers 2009 and 2010 to have been the worst two years in the history of the Italian press, so that newspaper publishers are even less able to provide quality information.

139. Il Sole 24 Ore, 23 April 2010, p. 23.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 75 6.4 Assessments

Digitization has not impacted signiﬁ cantly on the ownership structure of television, which remains by far the most signiﬁ cant medium in terms of both revenues and audience reach. Th e entry of Sky Italia into the market via satellite broadcasting has resulted in a marginal shift from duopoly to “triopoly” but it still leaves agenda-setting power relatively concentrated, with a greater proportionate share in commercial rather than public service hands.

Given the rivalry between News Corporation and the incumbent broadcasters (especially Mediaset, over competition for pay-TV audiences), Sky’s news channel, Sky Tg24, stands free from political ties and loyalties in Italy—however unlikely this may seem, in view of News Corp’s worldwide reputation.

Another important feature of the current domestic media scene is the weakening of the publishing companies, which already in the past had to struggle to compete with television. Th e current scenario has seen the advent of minor actors operating mainly on the internet and achieving economic results suﬃ cient for them to maintain small-scale newsrooms, but not to inﬂ uence the media agenda and to distribute information to a broad public.

76 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 7. Policies, Laws, and Regulators

7.1 Policies and Laws

7.1.1 Digital Switch-over of Terrestrial Transmission

7.1.1.1 Access and Aff ordability Th e Gasparri Law of 2004 and subsequent Consolidated Broadcasting Act of 2005, which gives a regulatory framework for digital switch-over, do not specify the requirements of viewers’ access (to signal carriers and multiplexes) and aff ordability that must be met before the switch-over is completed. It sets out a standard procedure—used for digital switch-over in the 16 areas of the country in which the process has been completed or is in progress—which ensures continuity in the reception of national and local programs and reduces the diffi culties caused to users by the digital switch-over.

In particular, a ministerial decree of 10 September 2008140 established that regional committees of representatives from trade associations and broadcasting stations should be set up in every part of the country. Th eir function would be to ensure the eﬃ cient use of frequencies and region-by-region funding for local television stations. In order that users could gradually accustom themselves to the new technology, the decree established a transition period of a few months, during which two of the national terrestrial channels (Rai Due and Rete 4) would broadcast only with digital technology.

Th is scheme has been implemented in a rather equitable and satisfactory manner in the fi rst geographical areas, despite numerous initial diffi culties, especially for users and local broadcasting stations. Completion of the switch-off in the next two years must be coordinated with the plan approved by AGCOM in June 2010, which should guarantee resources for national and local broadcasters, high defi nition, and radio, as well as freeing frequencies for wireless broadband.

140. Decreto ministeriale 10 settembre 2008, Defi nizione di un calendario per il passaggio defi nitivo alla trasmissione televisiva digitale terrestre, con l’in- dicazione delle aree territoriali interessate e delle rispettive scadenze (Ministerial Decree, 10 September 2008, Defi ning a Calendar for the Defi nitive Transfer to Digital Terrestrial Television, with an Indication of the Territorial Areas Aff ected, and the Timetable), Gazzetta Uffi ciale no. 238, 10 October 2008.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 77 Th e Budget Law of 2007 set up a special Fund for the Transition to Digital Broadcasting, managed by the Ministry of Communications. Its purpose is to promote digital content as well as viewers’ awareness of the advantages of digital technology and to facilitate access to the new technology for economically disadvantaged families. Th e fund, which consisted of €40 million for each year until 2010, was granted €30 million by law for 2011 and is being used, among other things, to support the citizens’ information campaigns on digitization run by the Ministry for Economic Development.141

7.1.1.2 Subsidies for Equipment Government measures to encourage the purchase of set-top boxes or digital television sets were important in the initial phase of digital switch-over, particularly in 2004–2005, when the government decided to give a subsidy of €150 for every buyer or renter of a DVB–T receiver for digital terrestrial television only, while satellite technology was excluded. In 2005, the subsidy was reduced to €70. Th e spending limit of the subsidy for each year was €110 million.

However, the original 2004–2005 subsidies for decoders were highly controversial, not only because of their discrimination between digital terrestrial and satellite broadcasting, but also because they appeared to be infl uenced by the confl ict of interest of the-then (and now again) Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Indeed, the prime minister’s brother, Paolo, had benefi ted from the subsidies as the owner of Solari.com, a company which distributed digital set-top boxes produced by Amstrad.142

Following complaints by satellite broadcasters (including Centro Europa 7 and Sky Italia), the European Commission initiated a formal investigation and, in January 2007, found that the 2004–2005 subsidies constituted illegal state aid as they breached the principle of technological neutrality among broadcasting systems and penalized satellite television (Sky Italia).143 Th e decision was conﬁ rmed by the European Court of First Instance,144 which rejected an appeal by Mediaset on the grounds that the subsidies constituted illegitimate state aid for terrestrial digital broadcasting stations furnishing pay-TV services, and ordered Italy to recover the subsidies.

Over the years, public subsidies have diminished further, partly owing to the decreasing costs of decoders and digital television sets. In 2007, the Government under former Prime Minister Romano Prodi introduced tax deductions for the purchase of television sets with integrated decoders. However, this provision was not renewed. For 2010, the government provided only meager funding, reserved for elderly persons on very low incomes, to encourage the purchase of interactive decoders. As for 2011, the Fund for the Transition to Digital Broadcasting, which is also aimed at facilitating access to digital television for economically disadvantaged

141. Articles 927–29, Law No. 296/2006 (2007 Budget Law) and Article 2, par. 4(g) of Decree No. 225 of 2010. 142. See, for example, “DTT, accuse di pastetta sui decoder” (DTT: accusations of bungling the decoders), PuntoInformatico, 7 November 2005, available at http://punto-informatico.it/1341435/PI/News/dtt-accuse-pastetta-sui-decoder.aspx (accessed on 25 August 2011). 143. European Commission, Decision of 24 January 2007, 2007/374/EC. 144. Judgment of the Court of First Instance 15 June 2010, Mediaset/Commission (Case T-177/07).

78 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY families, has been further reduced from €40 million to €30 million (see section 7.1.1.1). Th is may cause a signifi cant number of people to face fi nancial diffi culties in keeping up with the costs of switch-over.

7.1.1.3 Legal Provisions on Public Interest Th e Italian legislators and regulatory authority have repeatedly intervened to permit an eﬃ cient switch-over to digital technology that is compliant with the terms stipulated by the European regulations, and to ensure that the change is not excessively traumatic for operators and users.

On the other hand, the legislators have not taken the opportunity oﬀ ered by the switch-over to restructure the sector, remove the anomalies which have characterized the Italian system in recent decades—particularly the RAI–Mediaset duopoly in the generalist television market—and establish the principle that a variety of digital media operators as well as media content is crucial for the public interest. On the contrary, legislative intervention has on several occasions obstructed the entry of new operators into the market, to the point that in 2006 the European Commission was induced to open an infringement procedure against Italy for violation of the European rules on electronic communications (see section 5.1.1).

Since 1990, when the Mammì Law legitimized the RAI–Mediaset duopoly by allowing a single entity to hold three national licenses at the same time, the regulatory framework has never favoured the entry of new operators in the television market, despite several sentences of the Constitutional Court aﬃ rming that the duopoly breaches the principle of media pluralism.145

Th is situation has had major eff ects on the digitization process: the proliferation of free-to-air television channels is coming about mainly through the multiplication of RAI and Mediaset channels. Th e local television stations (the bastions in Italy of free information) are suff ering signifi cant erosions of their audiences, owing to the absence of eff ective measures to support their switch-overs, and also to certain decisions—for instance, in regard to automatic channel numbering or funding—which have penalized local television stations and newcomers. Nor do the independent producers of content seem to receive adequate protection.146

As seen above, only the pressures applied by the European Union have enabled some progress to be made as regards the opening up of the Italian media system in the new digital environment, guaranteeing the entry of new operators and the oﬀ er of new program schedules. However, we have seen that the criteria established for the allocation of the digital multiplexes available have raised concerns about the potential for perpetuating RAI and Mediaset’s hegemony in the new digital environment (see sections 2.1.3 and 5.1.1).

At the same time, the public service has not been reformed, nor has it received the resources necessary for it to assume a leading role like that of the BBC in the digitization process, and to increase the diversity of content.

145. See G. Mazzoleni and G. Vigevani, “Italy”. 146. See AGCOM, Relazione annuale 2010, p. 7.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 79 7.1.1.4 Public Consultation Th e process of digitization has been accompanied by the creation of technical committees involving the stakeholders. At national level, the Ministry of Communications has set up the National Committee for Digital Italy (Comitato Nazionale Italia Digitale, CNID), a body presided over by the Ministry of Communications and comprising AGCOM and representatives of the television companies, users, and the regional administrations. Th e CNID’s function is to plan and supervise the correct completion of the switch-over.

An active role has been played by a private association, DGTVi, instituted by the major national and local broadcasters. Th rough the constant consultation with the Ministry and with AGCOM, this association has inﬂ uenced the decision-making process.

Th e consumer associations are relatively weaker, and the focus of Government is more on business rather than on engendering pluralism of the media. Other civil society organizations have not been greatly involved in this process, probably because this issue was considered too technical and none of these organizations showed much interest. Politicians paid close attention to propping up existing nationwide television stations, whereas local television stations, which preserve pluralism in the media, have often suﬀ ered discrimination in frequency allocation. Because of that, in December 2010, the two major associations of local television stations left the DGTVi consortium, which was clearly dominated by nationwide broadcasters. Local broadcasters asked the CNID to slow down the switch-oﬀ process in those areas not yet digitized, in order to guarantee enough frequencies for all local television stations.

7.1.2 The Internet

7.1.2.1 Regulation of News on the Internet For more than a decade, online journalism in Italy has been subject to attempts at ad hoc content regulation. To date, however, no speciﬁ c legal framework has been approved. Th e internet is still a sector with relatively little regulation overall. But this does not mean that it is not subject to the guarantees and general rules which regulate news delivery. Indeed, article 21 of the Constitution protects the right to freedom of expression online as well: the right to inform and to criticize is guaranteed whatever the means of communication. As in the case of paper-based periodicals, no authorization is necessary for the creation of an online newspaper. However, the Press Law of 1948 established that no newspapers or periodicals could be published without prior registration. Failure to do so incurs the crime of “clandestine press”.147

Following the 2001 approval of a law that extended the deﬁ nition of “editorial products” to all content produced electronically or online, intended for publication or to disseminate information among the public electronically, online newspapers have been subject to the same obligation of registration as the print media, as long as they are characterized by “a title that identiﬁ es them and a regular periodical distribution.”148 Also,

147. Article 5, Law No. 47 of 1948 (Press Law). 148. Article 1, par. 1 and 3, Law No. 62 of 2001.

80 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY newspapers registered online can beneﬁ t from subsidies previously restricted to the press.149 On the other hand, the same oﬀ enses that typify journalism as well as general criminal behavior can be committed on the internet: slander and libel (article 595, subsection 3, Criminal Code), breach of privacy, defamation, instigation to commit crime, indecent behavior, etc.

7.1.2.2 Legal Liability for Internet Content It is diﬃ cult to summarize in a few lines the complex issues concerning the legal liability of online operators for the content of their websites. Forms of communication are dynamic and in constant evolution (online newspapers, blogs, forums, social networks, etc.). Providers operate with diﬀ erent roles, and Italy does not yet have an entirely consistent regulatory framework for them.150 Th e case law often tends to be contradictory, which makes the normative framework all the more uncertain.

Nevertheless, the following points can be emphasized: Italian legislation states that a provider cannot be subject “to a general obligation to supervise the information which it transmits or stores” and therefore exercise preventive control. Th e provider is therefore not liable unless “eﬀ ectively aware that the activity or the information are unlawful.” However, should it become aware of such unlawfulness “upon notiﬁ cation by the competent authorities”, it must take immediate action to remove the information or disable access to the website. When requested, the provider must collaborate with the competent authority to identify the posters of content in order to allow such authority to identify and prevent illegal activities.151

Greater uncertainty surrounds the liability of website managers for information content introduced by third parties. As regards blogs, a signiﬁ cant ruling was handed down by the Turin Court of Appeal on 23 April 2010, when it established that a blogger is not criminally liable for the content posted by others on her site, because her position cannot be compared to that of a newspaper editor.152

However, a series of parliamentary bills presented on the matter over the past decade tend to equate content delivered via the internet with that published in the press. All these bills have proposed increases in the bureaucratic procedures required of website managers, and the imposition of legal liability for content on service providers. In some cases, they have gone so far as to empower the government to close down news websites. None of these bills have been converted into law, however, partly because of the opposition raised by internet users.

149. Article 7, par. 3, Legislative Decree No. 70 of 2003. 150. Th at is, there are server providers, which only furnish connections, internet service providers (ISPs), which furnish further services, and content providers, which also deliver content. 151. Article 17, Legislative Decree No. 70 of 2003. 152. Text of the sentence available (in Italian) at http://www.mcreporter.info/giurisprudenza/to100423.pdf.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 81 In the absence of ad hoc legislative provisions on the internet, Italian jurisprudence has sought to adapt the existing rules on print media to online journalism. One of the most debated issues concerns the legal liability of the editor of an online newspaper for crimes committed by means of the newspaper’s content (such as defamation). Some judicial decisions had ruled that online newspapers are subject to the Criminal Code provision whereby the editors of printed periodicals are liable for negligent control over the content of their articles. However, in October 2010, the Court of Cassation for the ﬁ rst time aﬃ rmed unequivocally that the provision of the Criminal Code referred only to the print media and could not be applied to online periodicals.153 Th is ruling seems to have established an important principle which gives greater liberty to the web and reduces the risk of online operators being assailed by frivolous lawsuits.

Currently pending at the Chamber of Deputies is a bill on wiretapping already approved by the Senate on 10 June 2010. Th e bill—besides setting rigid limits on the right to inform about judicial inquiries—imposes on websites the same obligation to print retractions that applies to newspapers, on pain of severe sanctions. Th is equating of printed newspapers and every kind of news website nevertheless seems unreasonable and excessively onerous for amateur sites. Accordingly, numerous initiatives have been launched to have this provision deleted from the bill.

Nevertheless, civil liberties were enhanced when the Government opted to abolish most of the restrictions introduced in a 2005 antiterrorism decree concerning public wireless internet connections. Th e new rules repeal the requirement for the identity of users to be recorded and maintained.

Finally, on 6 July 2011, as a result of a public consultation with relevant stakeholders, AGCOM issued a draft regulation on copyright protection on the internet. If approved, this would establish a procedure to complain to AGCOM about violation of copyright made by contents posted on websites.154 According to this procedure, the copyright holder should send a preliminary request to the website administrators for the removal of the content considered in breach of copyright. If the website administrators acknowledge the violation, they may decide whether to remove the content within four days of the request. Should this ﬁ rst approach not be satisfying, the interested parties may apply to AGCOM, which will carry out a “clear and transparent cross-examination” within 10 days. Within a maximum of 35 days, AGCOM will issue a selective order to remove the content, if found in breach of copyright, or to return it, if it had been unlawfully removed. However, this procedure does not replace the option to choose the ordinary judicial procedure and if either party decided to go to court, the procedure before AGCOM would be suspended. Furthermore, AGCOM’s own decisions may still be challenged in the ordinary administrative courts.

It is important to note that, according to the draft regulation, the alternative procedure before AGCOM should not apply to those cases that represent “the exercise of the right of reporting, commenting, criticism

153. Court of Cassation, Section V Criminal, Decision no. 35511/2010. 154. Th e text of the draft regulation is available (in Italian) at http://www.agcom.it/Default.aspx?DocID=6694 (accessed on 10 August 2011). A press release by AGCOM on the release of the proposal is available (in English) at http://www.agcom.it/default.aspx?DocID=6692 (accessed on 25 August 2011).

82 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY and debate with a purpose to inform and update.” Th is deﬁ nition appears quite broad and does not specify the criteria to identify “informative” websites that would be exempted from AGCOM’s review.

Th e draft regulation is now subject to further consultation with the relevant stakeholders for comments and proposals before being adopted by AGCOM.

7.2 Regulators

7.2.1 Changes in Content Regulation Th e legal framework for radio and television broadcasting has undergone major changes during 2010 following the entry into eff ect of Legislative Decree no. 44/2010 (the so-called Decreto Romani), which transposes European Directive 2007/65/EC into Italian law. Th is Decree has introduced numerous novelties into Legislative Decree No. 177/2005 (the Consolidated Broadcasting Act), changing its title to “Consolidated Text on Audiovisual and Radio Media Services”. Th e distinctive feature of the new legal framework is the progressive deregulation of the radio and television sectors. Th e legislators have continued along the road opened by the 2004 Gasparri Law by reducing the diff erences between the regulations on television and on the other media, and by repealing signifi cant antitrust rules enacted to protect competition and pluralism.

On this logic of convergence among rules applying similarly to all communication networks transmitting audiovisual content, the Decreto Romani has introduced a new and very general deﬁ nition of “audiovisual media service” which comprises analog and digital television, live streaming, webcasting, and pay-per- view audiovisual services. Th e legislation has excluded from this deﬁ nition the websites, blogs, and online periodicals that transmit videos for information purposes, although uncertainties persist in regard to the equivalence between hosting provider sites such as YouTube and television broadcasting stations.

Another salient feature is the lightening of regulation: the decree distinguishes between “linear” and “non- linear” services and foresees a minimum of “content regulation” common to all suppliers of audiovisual services, and only slightly tighter regulation of linear audiovisual services.

Th e decree has also modifi ed certain rules on advertising. Here the law seems contradictory, unjustifi ed as regards competition, and diffi cult to understand except in purely political terms. For pay-per-view broadcasting (a sector in which Sky Italia is dominant), the decree foresees the drastic reduction of the amount of advertising permissible per hour to 12 percent, which comes into eff ect from 2012. For free-to-air commercial television, where Mediaset dominates with more than 60 percent of the market, the decree raises the ceiling to 20 percent per hour, while RAI maintains its previous ceilings of 4 percent per week and 12 percent per hour.

On the same logic of favoring free-to-air commercial broadcasters, changes have been made to the rules on more time-consuming advertising messages, such as telesales, and the way has been opened for product placement within television programs. Th e result of these rules seems to be a further imbalance in the distribution of

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 83 resources between print media and television and, in regard to the latter, a further strengthening of Mediaset, which already dominates the advertising market, as shown by AGCOM ﬁ gures.

Finally, the Decreto Romani appears to favor the incumbents—and Mediaset especially—with regard to criteria used to calculate the maximum amount of national programs that can be aired by each operator. Th e new legislation excludes repeat broadcasts and pay-per-view programs from the calculation (the pay-per-view market on terrestrial digital television is dominated by Mediaset, given that RAI has decided not to enter this sector). Th is makes it possible for broadcasters to provide proportionately less regional programming while still meeting their obligations in this respect.

It is diffi cult to connect these legislative changes to the digitization process. Some of them point in the direction of further deregulation of the media sector and the unifi cation of markets; others are more infl uenced by political interests.

7.2.2 Regulatory Independence In recent years, no major changes have been made to the rules intended to ensure the independence of the sector’s regulatory authority, notwithstanding the reference in Directive 2009/140/EC to the need to have independent media authorities at national level.

As a consequence, AGCOM is still exposed to particularly strong pressures applied by the government and political parties, as emphasized in previous reports by the Open Society Foundation.155 An episode in 2010 seriously jeopardized the authority’s credibility and led to the resignation of one of its board members, Giancarlo Innocenzi Botti. It was apparent from published wiretaps that Innocenzi Botti, a former Fininvest executive, had received frequent telephone calls from Prime Minister Berlusconi insisting that he should intervene to halt the RAI current aﬀ airs program Annozero presented by Michele Santoro, considered hostile to the government, and also Parla con me, guilty of hosting the founder of La Repubblica newspaper Eugenio Scalfari and its editor Ezio Mauro. A judicial inquiry is now in progress to determine whether Innocenzi Botti and Berlusconi have committed the oﬀ enses of extortion, aiding and abetting, and, for Berlusconi alone, duress or threat to a political, administrative, or judicial body.

In July 2010, Parliament appointed Antonio Martusciello, who is also a former Fininvest executive and a former MP for Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, as Innocenzi Botti’s replacement. On 5 September 2010, the managing director of Sky Italia wrote to the chairman of AGCOM expressing doubts about the impartiality of this appointment. Th is was the fi rst known case of a major television operator seeking guarantees on impartiality from AGCOM, considering that the appointment of commissioners too close both to the government majority and Mediaset can aff ect the regulator’s decisions, especially over the confl ict between stations owned by Berlusconi and Murdoch. However, at present Martusciello retains his place on AGCOM’s board and takes part in all its decisions.

155. G. Mazzoleni and G. Vigevani, “Italy”.

84 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Th e independence of AGCOM in general is undermined by the procedure established by law to appoint the nine members of its board. Th e President of AGCOM is appointed by the President of the Republic following the advice of the Prime Minister and in agreement with the Minister for Telecommunication, whereas the other eight members of AGCOM are appointed by the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate, each of which chooses four members.156 Th e appointment procedure based on political criteria—and in particular the direct inﬂ uence of the Government in the appointment of the President of AGCOM—have raised concerns about the eﬀ ective independence of this regulatory body. In particular, this procedure appears to be incompatible with both Directive 2002/21/EC on electronic communications (the so-called EU Framework Directive) and Directive 2007/65/EC on television broadcasting activities, which establish the independence of national broadcasting regulatory authorities—such as AGCOM—as a necessary requirement for their functioning.157

7.2.3 Digital Licensing In Italy, the events surrounding the procedures for the issue of licenses and the allocation of radio and television broadcasting frequencies constitute a horror story which has not yet reached its conclusion. Since 2004, management of the digital switch-over has in many respects been non-compliant with EU principles on competition, eﬃ cient handling of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the allocation of frequencies. As seen above, this has led to the opening of an EU infringement procedure against Italy which has made AGCOM and the legislator introduce new rules for the allocation of the digital spectrum (see section 5.1.1).

Th e approval by AGCOM on 3 June 2010 of the National Plan for the allocation of frequencies for terrestrial digital television, though contested by local television stations, should lead to a more effi cient and balanced use of resources. Some perplexities remain, however. For instance, the National Plan delegates responsibility to the Ministry of Communications, and not to AGCOM, for the task of issuing licenses for terrestrial frequencies on digital technology and cable. Aside from the fact that AGCOM would, as the competent regulatory authority, be better qualifi ed to issue such licenses, the most worrying aspect of this delegation is the confl ict of interest characterizing the present Government—whose Prime Minister is the owner of private media empire Mediaset.

Some attenuation of the RAI–Mediaset duopoly in the terrestrial digital television market may derive from the European Commission’s decision of 20 July 2010 to allow Sky Italia to compete in the forthcoming “beauty contest” for adjudication of a digital multiplex. An undertaking signed in 2003 had prevented Sky Italia—the dominant player in satellite television in Italy—from entering terrestrial digital television before 31 December 2011. However, the changed conditions of the Italian television market, and perhaps the danger that the digital dividend might be divided up among Mediaset, RAI, and Telecom Italia, have induced

156. Article 1, Law No. 249 of 31 July 1997. 157. See Directive 2002/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications and services (“Framework Directive”) and Directive 2007/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2007 amending Council Directive 89/552/EEC on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation, or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities (Text with EEA relevance).

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 85 the European Commission to allow Sky Italia to enter the free-to-air market, on condition that it broadcasts free-to-air programs on the terrestrial platform for ﬁ ve years.

Nevertheless, causes for concern remain. First, only three of the ﬁ ve MUXs will be allocated to new operators, including Sky Italia and the structure of the tender—a “beauty contest”—appears to favor the incumbents (see sections 2.1.3 and 5.1.2). Second, the Ministry of Economic Development performs a decisive role in this process. From May to October 2010, this Ministry was headed ad interim by Berlusconi himself and, since then by his long-term political ally, Paolo Romani. Th ird, the beauty contest is a “free tender”, without any ﬁ nancial charge. Th erefore, the dominant players (RAI, Mediaset, and Sky Italia) will receive another “present” that will further strengthen their market position.

Overall, the unstable time schedule, the uncertainty of the rules, and the discretion left to the Government in assignment of the new multiplexes raise various doubts concerning the real possibility that the process will lead smoothly to greater pluralism in Italian television. In another case, Italian legislation has been deemed contrary to the rules established by the European framework regulation on electronic communications. A decision by the European Court of Justice on 31 January 2008, based on the legal action by operator Centro Europa 7, ruled as incompatible with EC law “national legislation … which makes it impossible for an operator holding rights to broadcast in the absence of broadcasting radio frequencies granted on the basis of objective, transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate criteria.”158 Th e aﬀ air has come to a conclusion, although not an entirely satisfactory one. After a delay of 10 years, Centro Europa 7, which has held television broadcasting rights since 1999, has been allocated the frequencies necessary to broadcast its programs, but has taken its case to the European Court of Human Rights to claim a fairer compensation for the damages and losses incurred during its forced 10-year-long inactivity. At present, the case is still pending before the Court.

7.2.4 Role of Self-regulatory Mechanisms Italian law provides that persons who engage in journalism on a continuous basis must enroll on a professional register maintained by the Order of Journalists.159 Th e law stipulates that the Order must discipline journalists who commit oﬀ enses contrary to professional decorum by applying sanctions which range from a formal warning to expulsion from the register. Exercise of the journalism profession without enrolment on the register constitutes a criminal oﬀ ense, although this provision of the law is almost never applied in practice.

Th ese rules were established when journalism was paper-based, and their principal purpose was to protect journalists against undue pressure from newspaper publishers. Today, they apply whatever the medium of communication (press, television, internet, etc.), although the new media have cast doubt on their currency. Journalism is no longer practiced solely by “information professionals”. Th ere are increasingly fewer journalists on permanent employment contracts and increasingly larger numbers of hybrid practitioners who

158. European Court of Justice, Case C-380/05, Centro Europa 7 v. Ministero delle Comunicazioni. 159. Law No. 69 of 3 February 1963.

86 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY only sporadically work as journalists. Th e above disciplinary sanctions do not have signiﬁ cant eﬀ ects on non- professional journalists.

An instrument that may perform a signiﬁ cant role in the new digital world is recourse to ethical codes of conduct. Since the early 1990s, Italy has seen a proliferation of self-regulatory codes drawn up by the Order and the journalists’ trade union together with user associations, especially with regard to the relationship between the media and minors. One important example is the code of ethics envisaged by article 139 of the Personal Data Protection Code of 2003, relative to the handling of personal information in the exercise of journalism.

Th ese codes of ethics normally apply to online journalism as well. In recent years, moreover, codes have been created ad hoc for the internet: in force since 2003 has been the Internet and Minors Code signed by the government and some of the most representative providers’ associations has been in force since 2003. Th is has led to the creation of a regulatory board with supervisory powers. In progress since 2009, under the aegis of the Interior Minister, has been the devising of a more general self-regulatory code for online operators. In May 2010, the government presented the draft text for a Self-Disciplinary Code to Protect the Dignity of Persons on the Internet. Th e text provides for the introduction of a sort of quality certiﬁ cation represented by the logo “Internet: mi ﬁ do” (I Trust the Internet). Providers adhering to the scheme can remove content deemed unlawful from websites without waiting for intervention by the judiciary. Th e risk is obviously that self-regulation will be used to introduce that preventive control on online content which cannot be sanctioned by legislative means.

7.3 Government Interference

7.3.1 The Market Th e circumstance that the largest shareholder in Mediaset since 2008 has been the Prime Minister inevitably raises suspicions concerning the Government’s impartiality in regard to television broadcasting. Th ese suspicions are borne out by a number of measures seemingly inﬂ uenced by a conﬂ ict of interest. As has been said, the new regulations on advertising introduced by the Decreto Romani are designed to reduce the number of commercials on Sky Italia and instead favor their proliferation on free-to-air broadcasters (primarily Mediaset). Also, the increase in the value added tax levied on pay-TV subscriptions raises questions as to the government’s impartiality in the competition between Sky Italia and Mediaset (see section 7.2.1). Doubts about the government’s neutrality are also prompted by the case of the unlawful incentives for the development of terrestrial digital television that concluded with the ruling against Italy by the European courts (see section 7.1.1.2). Apparently anything but accidental is the dramatic increase in the share of paid-for institutional communication (public announcements, information campaigns) held by Mediaset television channels, to the detriment above all of the press.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 87 7.3.2 The Regulator Th e most serious cases of government abuse of power in regard to licensing and the relative allocation of frequencies have already been emphasized by previous OSF reports, as well as by numerous documents issued by international institutions.160

Th e lack of rules separating political power from media power in Italy raises the severe risk that such abuses may be repeated. Some signals in this regard are emerging from the procedure for allocation of the ﬁ ve terrestrial digital multiplexes (see sections 2.1.3 and 5.1.2). For instance, there was a perfect coincidence of views between the Minister for Economic Development, Paolo Romani, and Mediaset in trying to prevent Sky Italia’s application to enter this market (see sections 5.1.3 and 7.2.3). Moreover, on 23 August 2010, in the digitized Italian regions, the then-Minister of Economic Development ad interim, namely Berlusconi himself, granted authorization to Mediaset to conduct trial broadcasts on one of the channels that should be assigned by public competition. Th is perpetuated a “provisional occupation” of the airwaves prior to the public bidding process.

7.3.3 Other Forms of Interference Th e past two years have been characterized by increasing tension between politics and the information media, and especially between the government majority and certain newspapers that have published particularly incisive investigations into the Prime Minister’s public and private life. Various devices to exert undue pressure have been used in this clash.

For instance, on several occasions the Prime Minister has invited business leaders not to invest in opposition newspapers, primarily La Repubblica, accused of being “untruthful” and “defeatist” and of having overestimated the magnitude of the economic crisis. Also seemingly intimidating in their purpose are several claims for libel damages worth millions of euros, brought against antigovernment periodicals. Th e endemic control of politics over RAI has led to appointments dictated by criteria of party membership and to pressure on newspaper editors and journalists. Th is has caused public service information—and especially Tg1, historically the most important Italian newscast—to lose further credibility.

7.4 Assessments

Th e overall framework of policy and law seems to be only partially adequate to the challenges of digitization. Th e regulation takes into account the technological evolution and the media process of convergence. But

160. In the Open Society Foundation’s reports on television policy and regulation in Italy, published in 2005 and 2008, Gianpietro Mazzoleni and Giulio Vigevani recommended, inter alia: to enact “neutral” policies with respect to diff erent media; to strengthen the powers of the regulatory authorities and to ensure the independence of AGCOM; to guarantee transparent, non-discriminatory, and proportional procedures for the allocation of frequencies; to increase aid to private local television broadcasters; to ensure that RAI becomes a truly independent institution; to promote diversity and pluralism in broadcasting by supporting fi nancially new entrants; to fi x limits on the advertising revenues that a media company can control; and to introduce explicit incompatibility between the holding of elected or governmental positions and the ownership of media outlets.

88 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY it does not provide a healthy environment for the development of a modern and competitive market. Th e policies enacted by the Government do not appear “neutral” with respect to the diﬀ erent media, but primarily directed toward maintaining the RAI–Mediaset duopoly in both the free-to-air television and advertising markets. However, this commercial capture of media policy has not yet completely undermined public service broadcasting which maintains a central role in the media system.

Diversity and pluralism in broadcasting are still hampered by the very high concentration of media ownership and the absence of clear thresholds to identify and check excessive market power.

Lastly, digitization is weakening local broadcasters, who have played an important role historically in safeguarding freedom of information in Italy. Th e multiplication of the national channels, especially RAI and Mediaset, has caused an important decrease in terms of audience and advertising income of local and regional broadcasters. Th e legislator does not seem very keen on supporting those television markets. Th e nine frequencies of the “external digital dividend” to be assigned to mobile communications have been taken away from local stations. Th e “beauty contest” for the assignment of “internal digital dividend” is reserved to national operators.

Several cases analyzed above reveal the existence and consequences of a corrupt relationship between politics and media and, speciﬁ cally, continuous political interference in the television system. RAI appears to be subject to increasing political pressure and Mediaset unashamedly toes the political line of its majority shareholder, Prime Minister Berlusconi.

Th e political independence of AGCOM also seems to be increasingly under threat. Th e problem here appears to be rooted in the system of director appointments which has led to accusations and evidence of political cronyism. In this light, the classiﬁ cation of Italy as only “partly free” in a recent report on press freedom seems to be justiﬁ ed.161

While this situation is not solely and directly related to digitization, the discourse surrounding and associated with digitization has to some extent legitimized it. Legislative changes that have favored free-to-air commercial television, in which the Prime Minister has a controlling stake, have been justifi ed in accordance with end- of-scarcity arguments and particularly in light of increased competition from Sky Italia and the proliferation of digital outlets. However, the progress of digitization is undoubtedly off ering a wide range of programs and variety in the fi eld of radio and television. But there is nevertheless a clear systematic bias in the policy and regulatory framework that favors Mediaset and its dominance of the free-to-air commercial television market.

With regard to public consultation, digitization has not signiﬁ cantly enhanced the power of consumer groups or civil society organizations vis-à-vis commercial lobbyists. Although the CNID does comprise a broad mix of stakeholders, its role is somewhat eclipsed by DGTVi, which represents commercial broadcasters only.

161. Freedom House, “Freedom of the Press 2010. Table of Global Press Freedom Rankings,” available online at http://www.freedomhouse.org/images/File/fop/2010/FOTP2010Global&RegionalTables.pdf (accessed 17 March 2011).

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 89 8. Conclusions

8.1 Media Today

Italy does not have a tradition of strong independence of the news media, be they printed or electronic, public or commercial, from political infl uence. “Political parallelism” is a structural feature of relations between media and political systems (see section 2.3). Developments in the last fi ve years have further confi rmed that the Italian news media even in the digital era have to confront sustained pressures emanating from political leaders and parties.

Some positive change can be observed with regard to the issue of diversity and empowerment. As has occurred in several other national contexts, the large diff usion of the internet (especially of Web 2.0) has created unprecedented room for new media and new contents, triggering a production and circulation of information that substantively expands and enhances the public sphere, revitalizes democracy and citizenship, and may eventually represent a signifi cant alternative to information provided by the traditional news media. A question remains still open for discussion: what is going to be the role of mainstream journalism vis-à-vis the fl ood of user-generated content?

Th e advent of digital television has also increased the diversity of content circulated on the broadcasting spectrum, but our impression is that it is more a matter of quantity and less of quality. For example, we do not see any signifi cant benefi ts accruing to investigative journalism as a result of digitization. Th is tension between quantity and quality refl ects a broader issue concerning pluralism in today’s Italian media landscape that is still unresolved. On the one hand there undoubtedly exist more channels, more news providers, more voices, but—given the constraints discussed in our report—they are overtaken by the endurance of the RAI– Mediaset duopoly, at least within the free-to-air television market.

8.2 Media Tomorrow

Accordingly, the scenario for the immediate future shows the presence of the “old” determinants of the current state of things, and at the same time the deﬁ nitive signs of rapid technological change. Th e most dynamic changes are arguably occurring in mobile technology. Given the large diﬀ usion of mobile telephony

90 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY in Italy, it is reasonable to forecast a signiﬁ cant increase of technological and commercial investment in that direction. But the role of telecoms in the new digital landscape remains unclear: will they limit themselves largely to their traditional practice of providing networks or will they move further into the slippery ﬁ eld of content distribution? Telecom Italia has already stepped forward into digital television and the other companies might well follow, should the media–politics complex change.

Professional journalism is confronting a signiﬁ cant challenge from the web. Th e social media are going to be the main channels of information for ever-larger audiences, bypassing the mediation of traditional journalism. Th ere will of course be concomitant new opportunities for the practice of online journalism. But the passage to a new world of news-making is characterized by hesitancy and reluctance to let go of traditional print- and analog-centered thinking; this perpetuates the failure to monetize online news and thereby oﬀ set revenue decline in the print sector.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 91 9. Recommendations

9.1 Media Policy

9.1.1 Spectrum Policy

9.1.1.1 Digitization and Development of the Television Market

Issue Analog switch-oﬀ is approaching, but broadcasting policy continues to be skewed in favor of free-to-air national broadcasters, RAI and Mediaset. Th e procedure for allocating new digital frequencies to national televisions also seems tailored to guarantee the dominant positions of the incumbents, and appears incompatible with the economic and ﬁ nancial situation of the state.

Recommendation Th e Government should adopt “neutral” policies with respect to the diﬀ erent media outlets, without undermining local television in particular. Th e ﬁ nal allocation of digital spectrum should not privilege the existing RAI—Mediaset duopoly, or allocate frequencies to incumbent media operators such as Sky Italia, Telecom Italia or RAI and Mediaset, without an adequate economic return.

9.1.2 Internet Policy

9.1.2.1 Digitization and Development of Broadband

Issue Investment in broadband infrastructure is needed to address the rise of internal traﬃ c on ﬁ xed and mobile networks and the development of new technological platforms. More generally, a public policy pursuing this objective could help to reverse current trends in the Italian economy.

Recommendation Th e plan to achieve the complete digitization of the country must be a priority for the government, both because of its obvious signiﬁ cance for economic recovery and also to guarantee net neutrality as well as the citizens’ right to access the internet.

92 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY 9.2 Media Law and Regulation

9.2.1 Media Ownership

9.2.1.1 Competition in the Audiovisual Services Market

Issue Th e long duration of the governing coalition under media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi has further delayed the break-up of the RAI—Mediaset duopoly, both in terms of audience share and above all in the distribution of advertising revenue.

Reccommendation Th e legislature should adopt clear and solid regulation for the progressive removal of the duopoly and to enable competition in the audiovisual services market and access for new multimedia operators. To achieve this, the legislature may strengthen the distinction between the role of network operator and content provider and introduce serious antitrust standards to redress the dominant positions in the advertising market and in broadcasting rights.

9.2.2 Ragulation

9.2.2.1 Independence of AGCOM

Issue Th e procedure to appoint AGCOM’s nine board members, and especially its president, encourages and enables political control over the regulator. As such, it appears to be incompatible with EC Directive 2007/65 on television broadcasting activities, which establishes the independence of Communications Regulatory Authorities as a fundamental requirement.

Reccommendation Legislative reform should amend the appointment procedure, in order to sever the knot that ties government to political institutions. A new normative framework should exclude the government from appointing any board members and allow not only parliament, but also other institutions to appoint them, such as the President of the Republic, or the Regions. Moreover, both the level of competence and the guarantee of independence required of AGCOM board members should be deﬁ ned and implemented more rigorously.

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 93 9.3 Public Service in the Media

9.3.1 Reform of RAI

Issue Th e public service broadcaster RAI is gradually losing credibility, especially in respect of its news provision. Th e appointment procedure of the board and the director general, based on criteria of “sharing the spoils” between the government, the parliamentary majority and the opposition, threatens its independence. As well as hindering RAI’s ability to serve the public interest, this arrangement appears to be incompatible with Council of Europe guidelines on the independence of public service broadcasting.

Recommendation RAI should be reformed in order to cope eff ectively with rapid technological change and its impact on the mission of public service media. Th e weakness of the political system and the uncertainty over future governing coalitions create a unique context to reform the tasks of public service broadcasting and the rules that determine the appointment of RAI’s governing bodies. Th erefore, before the end of the mandate of the current Board of RAI (i.e. March 2012), the Government and Parliament should adopt norms, by emergency decree if necessary, in order to: Introduce a new appointment procedure that will strengthen the guarantees of competence and independence of the board members and the director general, paving the way to a process that will make RAI an eff ectively independent institution like the Constitutional Court or the Bank of Italy; Identify more clearly the public service obligations and start the privatization of the purely commercial part of RAI; Ensure that viewers are allowed to take eff ective part in developing public service policies; Guarantee suffi cient resources for public service innovation and the complete digitization of Italian television.

94 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY List of Abbreviations, Figures, Tables, Companies

Abbreviations

3G Th ird-Generation Mobile Telecommunications ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line AGCOM Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (Italian Communications Regulatory Authority) ANSO Associazione Nazionale Stampa Online (National Association of Online Newspapers) ARD Associazione per la Radiofonia Digitale in Italia (Italian Digital Radio Association) BBC British Broadcasting Corporation CARTv Coordinamento Associazioni Radio TV (Radio TV Associations Secretariat) CNID Comitato Nazionale Italia Digitale (National Committee for Digital Italy) CIR Compagnie Industriali Riunite CNOG Consiglio Nazionale dell’Ordine dei Giornalisti (National Council of the Order of Journalists) DAB Digital Audio Broadcasting DGTVi Associazione Italiana per lo Sviluppo della TV Digitale Terrestre (Italian Association for the Development of Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting) DMB Digital Media Broadcasting DSO Digital Switch-over DVB–H Digital Video Broadcasting–Handheld DVB–T Digital Video Broadcasting–Terrestrial DVB–T2 Second-Generation Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting System EU European Union FIEG Federazione Italiana Editori Giornali (Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers) FM Frequency Modulation FNSI Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana (Italian National Press Federation) GDP Gross Domestic Product GNI Gross National Income IAB Interactive Advertising Bureau IMF International Monetary Fund

OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 95 IPTV Internet Protocol Television ISP Internet Service Provider Istat Italian National Institute of Statistics ITU International Telecommunication Union MUX Digital Multiplex OSF Open Society Foundation OSI Open Society Institute PDF Portable Document Format RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana RNA Associated National Radios SIC Integrated Communications System TMC Tele Monte Carlo UGC User-Generated Content UNAR Uﬃ cio Nazionale Antidiscriminazioni Razziali (National Oﬃ ce Against Racial Discrimination) USB Universal Serial Bus VoIP Voice Over Internet Protocol

Figures

Figure 1. Rural/urban breakdown (in % of total population) ...... 12 Figure 2. Ethnic composition (% of total population) ...... 12 Figure 3. Linguistic composition (% of total population) ...... 13 Figure 4. Religious composition (% of total population) ...... 13 Figure 5. Internet penetration in Italy, regional breakdown ...... 19 Figure 6. Reading of newspapers and news on the internet in Italy, 2007–2010 ...... 22 Figure 7. Total kiosk sales of newspapers, 2005–2009 ...... 25 Figure 8. Total revenues per operator in the television sector (€ million), 2009–2010 ...... 72

Tables

Table 1. Economic indicators ...... 14 Table 2. Household ownership of media equipment in Italy, 2005–2009 ...... 16 Table 3. Platform for the main television reception and digital take-up in Italy, 2006–2010 .... 17 Table 4. Internet subscriptions and mobile phone subscriptions in Italy as % of total population, 2005–2010 ...... 18 Table 5. Shift in media use in Italy, 2007–2009 (% of population) ...... 20 Table 6. Uses of the internet in Italy, 2009 ...... 21 Table 7. Average sales of the ﬁ ve main quality daily newspapers, March 2010 ...... 26

96 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Table 8. Average audience share of the ﬁ ve main TV news bulletins, 2006–2010 (as % of total TV audience at time of broadcast) ...... 27 Table 9. RAI television programming by genre in 2010 (% net hours) ...... 31 Table 10. RAI radio programming by genre in 2010 (% net hours) ...... 31 Table 11. Top 10 most visited websites in Italy ...... 38 Table 12. Distribution of social networks among the Italian population ...... 39 Table 13. Data on Italian users and usage of Facebook ...... 39 Table 14. Th e number of immigrants in Italy by citizenship, 2009 ...... 54 Table 15. Evolution of public and private spending in the media sector in Italy, 2005–2010 ..... 70 Table 16. Sources of funding of prominent television players in Italy, 2009 ...... 70 Table 17. Advertising spending (€ million) in Italy by medium, 2010 ...... 71 Table 18. Total revenues by source in the publishing sector (€ million), 2009–2010 ...... 72 Table 19. Share of total revenues in the publishing sector by company (%), 2009–2010 ...... 73

Companies

3 Infostrada Alexa ITMediaConsulting Amstrad La7 Apple Mediaset Premium Arnoldo Mondadori Mediametrie/Eurodata TV Worldwide Auditel Microsoft BBC Monrif Caltagirone Group MSN Centro Europa 7 News Corporation Compagnie Industriali Riunite Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) Condé Nast RAI Way De Agostini RCS MediaGroup DMT Towertel RTI–Mediaset Editoriale Il Fatto SEAT Pagine Gialle Facebook Skype Fastweb Solari.com Fiat Telecom Italia Fininvest Tiscali Flickr Twitter Friendfeed Vodafone Google Yahoo! Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso YouTube Il Sole 24 Ore Wind

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100 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ITALY Mapping Digital Media is a project of the Open Society Media Program and the Open Society Information Program. Open Society Media Program The Media Program works globally to support independent and professional media as crucial players for informing citizens and allowing for their democratic participation in debate. The program provides operational and developmental support to independent media outlets and networks around the world, proposes engaging media policies, and engages in efforts towards improving media laws and creating an enabling legal environment for good, brave and enterprising journalism to ﬂ ourish. In order to promote transparency and accountability, and tackle issues of organized crime and corruption the Program also fosters quality investigative journalism. Open Society Information Program The Open Society Information Program works to increase public access to knowledge, facilitate civil society communication, and protect civil liberties and the freedom to communicate in the digital environment. The Program pays particular attention to the information needs of disadvantaged groups and people in less developed parts of the world. The Program also uses new tools and techniques to empower civil society groups in their various international, national, and local efforts to promote open society. Open Society Foundations The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. Working with local communities in more than 70 countries, the Open Society Foundations support justice and human rights, freedom of expression, and access to public health and education.

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